A total of 7557 people attended Rally Calder over the three days of the weekend despite over 60mm of rain in the lead up to the event, a sodden rain soaked day two and threatening skies on the morning of the final day.
Along with a strong, if rain affected, attendance Rally Calder attracted close to 160 entries across the Bosch ARC, CAMS Tarmac Championship, the Classic and Side by Side Rally Challenges and the extremely popular Car Club Forum battle.
According to Scott Pedder Rally Calder made a significant profit despite the affect rain had on the expected crowds.
"We had strong entry numbers as well as support from sponsors and corporate and were able to keep costs to an absolute minimum," said Scott Pedder.
"Certainly the reaction from the competitors is extremely positive and we are already planning Rally Calder 2013 because this is certainly a concept that has huge potential and will grow given time and the right nurturing," he said.
"Competitors have been unanimous in support for the event and many have already committed to competing at Rally Calder in 2013 which is extremely encouraging and makes the job of organising an event like this worthwhile.
"Any new event needs time to grow awareness as well as building interest and enthusiasm and that is what we will be doing over the next few years.
"We learned a lot over the weekend and we have plans to add more stages and to bring the action even closer to the fans, the list of changes is long, but we are committed to making this a spectacle and a fitting start to the Bosch Australian Rally Championship in 2013," Scott added.
"The new Side by Side Rally Challenge was a huge hit and attracted enormous interest and we are planning some interesting and more extreme stages for the Polaris and Can Am machines," Scott added.
Rally Calder proved popular online, attracting close to 12,000 hits on the new Honda Rally Live website, while Rally Radio was also a major attraction for rally fans who could not attend the event delivering live commentary on the sport's own internet radio station.
All in All close to 20,000 hits were recorded on the Rally Calder section of rally.com.au since the event was announced late last year. Over 100,000 views were recorded across all the nations' car club forums for the Just Car Insurance Forum Battle.
With the prospect of more factory teams, an increase in the number of SUV participants and even more Classics and Side by Sides the Rally Calder spectacle is sure to get even better.
Dates for the 2013 Rally Calder are yet to be formulated and will be announced later this year when the entire Bosch ARC calendar is finalised.
The 2012 Bosch Australian Rally Championship continues with round two, the iconic Quit Forest Rally on the slippery ball-bearing gravel roads of Busselton, south-east of Perth between 30 March and 1April.
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
