When privateer Nathan Quinn won the 2017 Australian Rally Championship in an ageing Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 with a budget of about $30,000, it would have appeared that he had the rallying world at his feet.
Yet 18 months on, Quinn's rallying escapades have been curtailed to a heroic dash at the New Zealand Rally Championship in five rented cars, and a few classic events in his 1970 Mazda RX2.
It's a far cry from his championship-winning season, but like many before him, it's a reality that is borne of a lack of funds and support to compete at the highest level, rather than a lack of desire.
"It's easy to be cynical, but I've seen it all before," Quinn's father, Martin, said this week.
A top-line drive in his own right in the 1990s, but more recently running and organising Nathan, Martin has seen the advent of Group G, PRC, Group A, Group N, and now AP4 and R5, and can't help but thinking that CAMS are on the wrong track with rallying in Australia.
"Frankly I think the formula is so wrong it will never recover, and I actually wonder sometimes why this is, and would love to hear the business case and strategy for what’s happening right now.
"It seems pretty basic to me. The sport is probably now the most expensive it has ever been with the cost of buying and running R5 cars, and the costs of acquiring, building, developing and running the regional AP4 (and its plethora of variants).
"Add to that the cost of redeveloping what amounts to Group A conversions for the production cars remaining, which include major investment in sequential gearboxes, cross members, engine and suspension freedoms that weren’t available in Group N.
Nathan Quinn (left) won the Australian Rally Championship in 2017. Photo: Geoff Ridder
"This comes at a time when main stream motorsports are struggling with their own budgets and looking to economise, and corporate and public interest is potentially almost at an all time low.
“I ponder ‘is this because the cars we drive don’t sell here and have no market power or relevance?’
Quinn adds that rallying is seemingly European based in terms of what cars are used and supposedly suitable for rallying, but suggests what sells in Europe doesn't necessarily sell in Australia.
He suggests that this could be a very simple reason why the Australian importers, dealer networks and international manufacturers are not interested in Australia’s highest level of rallying.
“It appears that the small cars we sell in Australia are poorly received and I recall reading where some manufacturers are removing the small cars form our market,” he adds.
"Our small cars in Australia are Yaris, Fiesta, Swift, Barina or Spark, etc, and many of those small cars are being discontinued in our market, and many other small cars are on the back-burner.
“Yet the i30, the Mazda 3 and the Corolla all out sell their small car buddies.
“It seems small cars don’t sell here, yet that is what we run to the public with when we want to rally and create attention.
Nathan Quinn has been keeping his eye in driving his Mazda RX2. Photo: Dave King
"We tell ourselves that there is no money, rallying doesn’t interest anyone, and that the only money is for Supercars, however, Touring Car Racing (TCR) arrives with small to medium cars, FWD, turbocharged, powerful, fully backed by (it seems) manufacturers with big budgets.
“To the average viewer they could be a WRC car for all they know. I struggle to make out the difference between some WRC cars myself with all the work done to make the small cars look bigger.
"This shows me, and tempts me to think, that if you can make the cars relevant to the public, you automatically make them relevant to the manufacturers, which makes them, in turn, relevant to the sport.
"What little money was there for rallying in this country will most likely be taken up by more relevant racing."
Shane Jacobson and Nathan Quinn at Rally Australia.
Martin Quinn believes Nathan was probably the last driver to win the Australian Rally Championship in a 'real' production car with a team of volunteers.
"Who can build or finance an AP4 car for Nathan Quinn? Who can buy him or justify financing an R5 car? Who can pay for the running of either?" he asks.
“If we rallied cars that sell here, we may not have the world’s fastest regional championship, but it doesn’t need to be the fastest racing to be successful – it needs to be relevant, and that’s the problem some motorsports seem to be having in Australia.
"Let’s ask a very simple question to ourselves - why is TCR looking so enticing to the manufacturers, and why isn't rallying?
“Like TCR, like Supercars, like many others, perhaps rallying needs to break away from its traditional roots to become more relevant and sustainable.”
They're legitimate questions, but seemingly ones with no clear answers.
The views in this article are not necessarily those of RallySport Magazine
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