Just when both events were staring a sponsor-less event in the eye, Repco came onboard with a deal which has been reported as being a multi-million dollar one.
Let’s look at the facts – the New Zealand round of the World Rally Championship was without a major sponsor, and the organizers were reported to be well short of sufficient financial support to run the event this year.
Similarly, Rally Australia had lost the support of the Western Australian Government, forcing it to look elsewhere to run its event. Telstra Australia departed at the same time, leaving an event with (so we’re led to believe) a venue, but no sponsor.
Enter Repco, a brand-name that must surely be familiar to 99% of Australians, and which has been involved in motorsport before, including the Repco Round Australia Trial in 1979. With a healthy number of branches in both Australia and New Zealand, the company is aggressively ramping up its presence in both countries, and plans to inject money into these events by actively promoting its involvement in a number of other ways, including in-store promotions and the like, hopefully targeting the non-motorsport public.
So it makes sense that a trans-Tasman company, widely recognised both here and in New Zealand, has got right behind Rally New Zealand this year, and Rally Australia in 2009.
The benefits of this deal will no doubt be beneficial for the company itself, as well as rallying in general, and although both countries are victims of the FIA’s rotational event system, it still gives them two years of exposure.
Knowing just how professional the company is, there’s little doubt that rallying as a whole will be the winners. Good move, Repco.
- Jeff Whitten
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