“In my role on ARCom, I saw the Victorian rally community and its representative panel as the most organised and cohesive group with a very strong grasp on reality and the ways for the sport to survive,” Ordynski said today.
“Ian Crook is an outstanding member of the rally community, a highly respected leader who is not afraid to ask the difficult questions and has the ability to bring together all of the various facets of rallying. His respect from competitors, volunteers, government and civil authorities, relationships with forestry and land management groups is irreplaceable.
“Last night’s ‘removal’ of the Victorian Rally Panel Chairman sounds very familiar to my experiences on ARCom,” says Ordynski. “But I don’t think it will have any effect on the Victorian rally community’s resolve to save their sport – in fact I think it will give added impetus and even greater unity.”
Ordynski says that it is indeed a sad day for CAMS to lose both Crook and Lister when they have devoted themselves to furthering the sport of rallying.
“Stuart is still running Australia’s most successful rally (the Alpine) and heads one of the largest rally clubs (the Historic Rally Association) so for CAMS to cause his resignation from his administrative roles is quite bizarre on CAMS part,” Ordynski added.
He further points out that CAMS itself cannot run rallies without all of the volunteers and the contacts and relationships those people hold with all the appropriate authorities, and that to alienate the people who graciously allow CAMS to generate its revenue from their volunteer services makes no sense.
Ordynski says he is quite concerned about the way CAMS is heading and that its reluctance to release funds, held in trust for rally communities around Australia, is probably not the major issue.
“I think CAMS can ill-afford to potentially lose Victorian rallying, but in my view, when you add to it the loss of the WRC event, the loss of goverment support for the APRC, a steady departure of manufacturers, sponsors and major teams from the ARC, and then combine that with what is happening in racing with circuits, events and entire series moving to alternate sanctioning bodies such as the AASA, I don’t think it is one state’s rallying that is in crisis,” he concluded.
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