Young up and coming South Australian Driver, James Rodda will be making the jump to the national rally stage by contesting the newly implemented Rallyschool.com.au Australian Junior Challenge (RAJC). Twenty year old Rodda, alongside co-driver, Marcus Piristi, are excited to be taking the Rally Power Motorsport Team to the next level in 2011 to mix it with Australia’s best teams.
Rodda has been invited to attend the 2011 Bosch Australian Rally Championship Official Launch in Melbourne on the 6th April. The team will be representing the 4WD section of the Australian Junior Challenge at the launch following the many accolades and outstanding results in the last three years of competition in the South Australian Rally Championship.
“We are very proud to be the face of the 4WD section at the ARC launch,” stated Rodda, who will be along side the 2WD RAJC representative, Will Orders.
Kicking off their season, the Adelaide Hills based family team, contesting the 1999 Subaru WRX STi, will be making to road trip across the Nullarbor to compete in the first round, the Quit Forest Rally (16-17th April) based in Busselton, three hours south of Perth. For the first time Rodda will be competing on the cars “home soil”, being built and run by WA’s Maximum Motorsport in previous years.
“The Australian Junior Challenge is the perfect opportunity for us to take the leap into the National Championship. The new challenge makes it a lot easier and cost effective to compete on a national scale, with great opportunities for TV and media coverage, with great rewards for the eventual winners! Competing in the Australian Rally Championship is what I have been dreaming of since I started looking at getting into motorsport at age 13!” expressed Rodda.
Rodda, currently seeded SA’s third outright driver is more than ready to tackle the national stage with the list of state awards including, SA’s most improve rally driver three years running, 2009 CAMS SA/NT Future Star Award winner, 2nd Outright SA Rally Championship (SARC) Driver in 2009 as well as podium finishes and outright pace including leading the first 2010 SARC round by two minutes before a devastating engine failure at the end of the final stage!
Junior Challenge Driver’s will have to qualify at either, Quit Forest Rally (WA), Rally of SA or Rally Queensland, but are free to enter all events. Each round will gain some TV coverage on Ch10 / OneHD
Rodda aims to be one of the drivers to qualify for the RAJC final to run in conjunction with the World Rally Championship round, Rally Australia based at Coffs Harbour in September. The Junior Challenge final battle will be shown on Channel 10 and ONEHD in its own one hour review show!
“The new challenges for 2011 have also made it much better value and a great opportunity for sponsors to get behind young drivers. This year the RAJC will receive over 1 million dollars worth in TV value alone” stated Rodda.
The winning driver will gain the Australian Junior Challenge title, but will also get free entry and full funding to compete for outright ARC honours at Rally Victoria competing with the rallyschool.com.au team, plus a full day of rally tuition from reigning ARC champions Simon and Sue Evans.
In addition to competing Nationally, Rodda and Piristi still have the SA Rally Championship firmly in their sights for 2011.
The Rally Power Motorsport Team still have exciting marketing opportunities for the huge 2011 season ahead, so if interested please contact jrodda@rallypower.net
For more information about the team go to their website www.rallypower.com.au
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