KEY POINTS:
Hamilton lifted the profile of Rally New Zealand and plans to do even better next year, but is the world championship worth the effort?
Emphatically yes, says rally chairman Chris Carr, but he agrees that the championship is going through lean times and more top-line competitors are needed. This year there were only 11 world rally cars at Mystery Creek.
"The championship is at a low ebb," says Carr, "but I think there are signs that positive changes are coming.
"Mitsubishi may be back here as a privateer team on their way back to full commitment and Suzuki are starting a full programme in the European rounds.
"The championship has had lean times before. I remember when there were only Peugeot and Lancia here or Lancia and Toyota with only a couple of factory cars.
"The rally is very much a worthwhile exercise but New Zealanders need to get behind it both as competitors and supporters. The competition for rounds in the championship is huge and we can't relax."
Carr and his team have been working on having Rally NZ reinstated as a round of the national championship and have also arranged for the Possum Bourne Memorial Rally, run by the Pukekohe Car Club, to run on the rally stages on the second day of the event.
Morrie Chandler, Carr's predecessor at Rally NZ, is now supremo of world rallying. He says New Zealand's efforts this year were welcomed and other venues are following suit, by thinking outside the square.
"It is being accepted that 16 events don't have to be carbon copies of each other. They can make changes and get a tick for that. Next year Argentina plans to start with a superspecial in a huge stadium in Buenos Aires with the cars being trucked in a convoy to the other stages the next morning," says Chandler. "Germany is planning a stage through the main streets of Trier and several other organisers are thinking laterally."
Ford are likely to have at least three teams next year, Citroen will have their own team for champion Sebastien Loeb and Kronos, the team that ran Loeb this year, will do a full programme for Manfred Stohl. Subaru and Petter Solberg should be back on the pace.
The World Council spent an hour this month discussing a blueprint for the world championship up to 2012 and endorsed measures to make it more affordable for lesser manufacturers.
Among the early changes will be a restriction next year to six engines per car with a five-minute penalty if you use a seventh.
The following year the limit will be four engines.
New Zealand set a new standard with its live television cover. More than 18 hours were live and available in Europe and on the internet.
Local commentators Chris Grant and Marty Roestenburg were superb.
Carr acknowledges that TV is a two-edged sword. It opens up the stages to more people, but if the weather is bad it reduces the number who get out into the field, reducing a revenue stream.
Even the foreign media seemed happy with Mystery Creek and that should encourage the many volunteers, some of 30 years standing, that their efforts are not in vain.
