The NSW Government today announced $412,000 in support for 20 regional events to be held across the State next year and one of the recipients was the popular Rally of Lithgow. The event will receive $20,000 in funding for 2010.
Minister for Tourism, Jodi McKay, said the twenty events chosen will receive the funding under the 2010 Regional Flagship Events Program. She said the program offers one-year grants of $10,000 and grants of $20,000 each year for three years to selected events.
The 2009 Rally of Lithgow attracted an estimated 3,500 visitors to the Blue Mountains region and this is expected to increase to over 4,000 in 2010. The event is a round of the NSW State Rally Championship, the ACT Rally Series, the NSW Clubman Rally Series and the NSW Race Brakes Excel Series.
Rally of Lithgow Clerk of Course, Ric Cary, is delighted with the funding announcement.
"This funding is a concrete example of the contribution Rally of Lithgow makes to the local community in both financial terms and increasing awareness of Lithgow as a destination. It also, in some measure, shows the support we receive from the local Lithgow Council, Chamber of Commerce and local business who see the event as one of the major occasions on the calendar and whose support was instrumental in the gaining of this grant.
"The grant has various stipulations attached to it and we as an organising team look forward to using it to increase the public awareness of the Rally of Lithgow, the City of Lithgow and the sport of rallying for 2010 and beyond."