If there’s one thing about rallying people, they’re passionate about their sport, and about their desire to see it prosper in an increasingly challenging sporting market.

RallySport Magazine’s story earlier this week on the fate of talented Australian rally drivers has received plenty of interest. We questioned whether there was an easy way for drivers to secure the funds to compete at the highest level possible, or whether it was a fact of life that would never change.

Glen Raymond is a driver who'd be welcomed back to the ARC with open arms.Since the article was published on Monday, our website traffic numbers have soared, and the link to the story on our Facebook page has reached over 7270 people. Many of those readers gave their thoughts on the subject, and many of their comments are featured below.

Some respondents were adamant that funding a passion such as rallying should be the sole responsibility of the individual. However, the majority were of the opinion that we need to encourage some changes in the way events are promoted in order to attract more sponsorship to the sport in general, hopefully with a flow-on effect of sponsorship for drivers, too.

Interestingly, a Facebook post about the possibility of a one-make series in the Australian Rally Championship by a leading competitor has had over 135 comments – further adding to the interest in the sport by those close to it.

It certainly gives the powers that be plenty to think about it.


Ross Cox:
 CAMS! Ha, they want rallying, except the WRC, to die a slow strangling death. Also any level of sponsorship for Rally is bloody difficult to find. General Public do not understand the sport, prefer to sit on their #$%@ and watch round and round and round being subjected to the most banal and "captain bloody obvious" commentary.

Declan Dwyer:
I'd like to see CAMS and the senior bodies of rallying seriously try to get some large (ish) series sponsors for ARC and state level rallying (if possible) to do nothing more than drop entry fees to as little as possible. (Less than $100!) The theory is that low entry fee = bigger fields (not necessarily more competitive, but more entries from people in a less than 10k car who don't want to drop an entire years budget into 1 entry fee)
Bigger (and more diverse) field = more crowd interest= more crowd.
More crowd= more media= more sponsors for competitors.
I use Bathurst as a comparison. How interesting would the race be if it was only 10 cars? Remember the days of a dozen different manufacturers having cars on the track? People love that! Look how popular this weekends 12 hour was! We like seeing under dogs do well. We like seeing diversity. You don't necessarily need to win to be interesting and popular (ie Jeremy Browne in the Cooper S or Jack in the 180b (or S15) both popular for different reasons and both draw the crowd. Both could be excluded because of the 1 to 2 k start fee. The events need them!
Just my thought!

Chris Munro:
Sponsorship is a simple equation, return for investment ...... simply put its advertising for a company and they need to see a return .Many people see sponsorship as a gift , a donation or a one off and putting a sticker on your car is not where the effort ends . Whist the cost of putting a reliable and most importantly a safe car on the track is expensive many competitors overlook presentation and it doesnt need to be over the top. As a photographer who has covered pretty much all forms of motorsport I can assure you that ugly cars, bikes , trucks or boats are not likely to the be the cars highlighted . A case in point Keith Fackrell from KCF Rallysport , the team presents an immaculate looking car every single time and accordingly it gains attention and appears over and over again in media releases etc . Imagine if we had fields of cars that all looked the biz , wouldnt it be much easier to attract sponsors ? I know this is not the overall solution by any means but you need an attractive product to sell first and foremost . Heather Smith ran a couple of webinars recently in relationship to sponsorship , it would be interesting to see how people who participated managed with their efforts

James Matthew Eaves:

As much as i love rallying, its always struggled for recognition in Australia. Why would sponsors invest when there is little to no television coverage and minimal mainstream magazine/newspaper coverage?. Its a real shame but unless you can engage the viewing public to enjoy the spectacle, it will continue to diminish. The old Rally Australia used to get amazing coverage which everyone then piggybacked off, but nowadays stages are shorter, spectators have less access and there's no value to TV networks. Sad really.

Michael Vettas:
From a media pov it's frustrating, last year I exhausted probably 15 print titles in the country in the hope some would want WRC coverage and 1 said yes, if we can't even get the world class series coverage there is no hope for the local ARC, to me this is the biggest problem, no offence but the TV deal I feel means very little, it doesn't attract a new audience, only those who are already involved watch it and even then we watch it on YouTube, there needs to be a bigger push with social media if we cannot get others printing, it's a sad state of affairs atm.

Heather Smith:
This topic comes around every couple of years... Sigh... It's not an easy subject, everyone has their own take on what should be done to fix things. Here's one suggestion: Stop thinking about what sponsors can do for you/rallying, and start thinking about what you/rallying can do for sponsors... Here's an article that articulates it well, from a CEO level perspective. It talks about things from a charity point of view, but the essence is the same... http://threadpublishing.com/stories/the-best-elevator-pitch/
Kate Catford:
#bringbackraymo

Heather Smith:
FWIW, I agree with Declan. Get the numbers there and market the sport (internally) to those who want to be there. Concentrate on the competitors (customers) and the rest will/should follow... regardless of whether that means getting 'sponsors' in the traditional sense.

David Laarhoven:
The proven talent Nathan Quinn in the image is proof in this case.
A region like the Coffs Coast banding together to support and endorse their talented amabassador not just for their hometown event Rally Australia but for a series of Asia-Pacific rounds and still the money talks and talent walks.
A darn shame, unless other regions, states and national tourism bodies or corporations get behind their youth the sport will die a slow death.
#QUINNYintheMINI

Ian Green:
Take the complication and cost out of rallying ( or any Motorsport ), liability is a joke, we all know the risks as individuals and accept them (in everything we do ! ),sign disclaimers and cut the insurances etc, ( if we can ? ) let us be responsible for ourselves

Alan Bird:
Main stream media is a problem but over the years I have seen many people approach potential sponsors with a proposal revolving around I need this rather than this is what I can do for you IF. iI's no different to putting in a job application or selling a product people want to know what you/it are going do for them.

Jodie Kuhne:
Australian regulations have become way too harsh. OK, spectators are told to stay in one spot and can't move. You look overseas at all rally events, spectators can go wherever they want. Yes, people get hurt, but everyone knows racing is dangerous. Maybe if people were allowed to go to the best spots for viewing it would help. Next thing I find is the cars. I wanna hear turbo sounds, loud noises and faster cars! Rallying seems to be one of the few racing sports that have become so bloody restricted people have lost interest. Yes, F1 is also becoming slower but due to advancing technology they try and get around it. What I would seriously love to see is the old Group B back again! Maybe have a class of high powered cars. That would draw the crowds in.

Peter Knight:
Rallying as a sport needs to drop CAMS. and form our own body. CAMS have never wanted Rallying since the early seventies. The CEO of CAMS is only interested in minimising risk and Rallying is seen as high risk by CAMS from the CEO down and they are only interested in making a profit and not interested motorsport and Rallying in particular.

Geoff Floyd:
This is by no means a new problem; it goes back 30 years and even longer. Hugh Bell springs immediately to mind - had the talent but not the backing and without that he could just not afford to continue so walked away.
One of the problems as I see it is the tyranny of distance. Live in any of the major capitals in Europe and a 5 hour drive will see you out of the country so National Championships are always within easy reach of a home base.
Living in Melbourne and committing to the National Championship means massive logistics and probably 5 weeks on the road - in a country where the norm for annual leave is 4 weeks and most competitors have to hold down a full time job just to afford to go rallying

Paul Newman:
Me myself and I support me in my rally exploits, the more I want to do the more work! If I had or wanted to do more or have a better car or go overseas than I would work my &%$# off and figure it out how to get it done & I would never expect sponsorship or bring it into the equation – it’s called drive - all top level sports people have it, never say never ( Usain Bolt, Adam Gilcrist, Cadel Evans).

* Posts are as they appeared on Facebook and have not been edited by RallySport Magazine.

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