Motorsport: Rally of NZ fears this year's event may be last

Photo / Greg Bowker

Motorsport bosses have warned that without government support the iconic Rally of New Zealand could be wiped off the calendar, but the man in charge of the purse-strings has a simple response - apply for funding.

The proposed dates for the 2011 World Rally Championship have been released and the Rally of NZ does not feature. That could spell the end of the event.

The promoters of the WRC do not believe the rally is meeting its promotional objectives, which has prompted Rally of NZ organisers to bemoan a lack of government backing.

However, Roger Wigglesworth, director of the tourism events and consumer affairs division of the Ministry of Economic Development, said rally organisers had not talked to his organisation nor even applied for funding.

"We have a funding round that is due to close on March 1, and I certainly have not yet seen anything from Rally of New Zealand.

"At the moment we have a fund that helps major events, and I haven't seen anything from them ... We judge each event on its own merits."

That drew a quick response from Rally of NZ chairman Chris Carr, who told the Herald he had applied to the government for money and was "told to go away". He said his body was directed not to the tourism events and consumer affairs division, but to the inter-agency events group, another MED division, "and we were rejected".

While New Zealand's absence from the 2011 calendar was expected, with it and the Rally of Australia taking alternating turns since 2008, Carr said the 2011 calendar could be a precursor to following years, with the WRC planning to stop such rotation of events.

That could mean this year's rally, beginning on May 6, could be the last WRC event to be staged here.

"The way I would read the half-messages I'm getting is that the 2012 calendar will be very, very similar, if not the same, as the 2011 calendar," Carr said.

"That would mean New Zealand was gone in the WRC. It's all conjecture, but where there's smoke, there is fire. If that was the case it would mean we simply haven't been able to foot it with the guys who have bigger wallets than us."

Morrie Chandler, the New Zealander who is president of the FIA's World Rally Championship commission, said a change in promoter had seen a different direction for the WRC.

UK company North One Sport had taken over promotion of the WRC and it wanted to raise its profile significantly.

"The object is to grow the picture," Chandler said. "There are about 20 events that have been on the calendar for the past two to three years that are of reasonable quality from a sporting perspective. There are no issues there but the issue is how do we improve the level of promotion, how do we make people outside the world of motorsport realise it's even on."

Chandler said the Rally of NZ was a strong sporting event "but it's not meeting the promotional objectives".

Part of that, Chandler said, was weak competition in the broadcasting market, which had seen the rights sold for less than the promoters wanted, but the major flaw was an inability to attract sponsors and, in particular, government support.

"The [other countries] have, in most cases, much closer working relations with the tourism authorities. They use the event to promote the country quite nicely.

"In New Zealand, unfortunately, we don't use the event to promote the country."

Chandler said the chances of getting the WRC back in 2012 were not dead in the water, but "it's a case of New Zealand, I have to say, smartening up its act.

"That's not a negative on the organiser, but New Zealand as a whole has to put together a far better promotional package. It has to show it values the event and if it doesn't value the event, then fair enough, let's not waste any more time on it."

Carr said that New Zealanders had no concept of just how big motorsport was worldwide and that the government's funding focus was perhaps too narrow.

"In a sporting sense we [Rally of NZ] perform very well; in dollar terms we are a tiny little nation at the bottom of the world with four million people who are obsessed with rugby and yachting, who don't understand the big picture in terms of the popularity of other sports overseas."

THROUGH THE STAGES

1969

First international rally held in New Zealand. Thirty-three cars made the start line in Taupo.

1977

Rally of NZ first included as a round of the World Rally Championship, making it the longest-running world championship event in the Southern Hemisphere.

2001

Rally of NZ awarded the WRC Rally of the Year.

2009

Event not held for the first time since 1974 as WRC decides to rotate the NZ and Australian rallies on a turnabout basis.