KEY POINTS:
Trans-Tasman motorsport championships could be in the offing as New Zealand and Australian officials look at greater co-operation.
Confederation of Australian Motorsport (Cams) chief executive Graham Fountain today said it made sense for the two countries, because of their size, to take a regional approach.
He said the issue was raised at a meeting between Cams bosses and their Motorsport New Zealand counterparts during the Hamilton 400 V8 Supercar event last month.
"We're planning to meet again to look at a more strategic focus on a trans-Tasman arrangement at all levels and all disciplines of the sport," he said.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense for us, for the sake of being different, to be different. Let's leverage the opportunities that are provided by a joined-up approach to trans-Tasman motorsport."
Fountain was in Auckland for the announcement that Australasia's largest automotive parts and accessories retailer, Repco, would be the naming rights sponsor for both the 2008 Rally of New Zealand and the 2009 Rally of Australia.
Under the revamped world rally championship (WRC) calendar, the New Zealand and Australian rallies are alternating as a round of the WRC, with New Zealand getting the nod this year.
The New Zealand event will staged on August 28-31 and based again at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton.
Next year's Australian rally will held in September at venues still be finalised.
Repco's sponsorship is the first time one company has bought naming rights to two WRC rallies and there is an option for the deal to be extended beyond 2009.
Managing director John Moller said the amount of money the company was putting up was confidential, but "it's a big number".
Rally New Zealand chairman Chris Carr said event organisers were delighted to have reached agreement with Repco.
Carr said New Zealand was facing huge competition from far more wealthy rivals to retain its place as a round of the WRC.
"When you have a country that has unlimited money to put into this kind of thing and desperately wants it, that tells you the value of the WRC and why we need to keep it," he said.
"But it also tells you how hard it is to do that and the need for us to work with partners like Repco to keep going and to do the best we can."
- NZPA
