New Zealand Rally Championship co-ordinator, Simon Bell, has spoken of the differences between the national championships in his country and Australia, and of New Zealand’s current tidal wave of interest.
NZRC boss Simon Bell. Photo: Geoff RidderIn an interview in the November issue of RallySport Magazine, Bell said the current NZRC rules “were thought through very well and involved a lot of people in the sport to create a long term view, which possibly is where the ARC needs to head with their strategy”.
“We have created a transition for our sport from the Group A / Group N based fleet to something new, the next generation of cars, be that the AP4 based or showroom based cars like Ben Hunt’s exciting new Subaru,” Bell said.
“It’s working well and has helped teams to be able to run older cars for a time, which has given them some breathing space to make decisions on which way to go with new cars.
“To be honest, we’d love to see the ARC grow, and we are only too happy to talk to them about what’s working over here, as strong championships in Australia and New Zealand can only be good for the sport.
“So yes, the NZRC is going well, but there has been a massive amount of work done to get it here from many people, from competitors to MSNZ, and everyone’s been positive.
“We are all working towards making our sport grow and being more exciting in the long term,” Bell said.
Read the full story in the November 2016 issue of RallySport Magazine.