Rally chiefs ready to pull plug

Finnish rally driver Mikko Hirvonen competing in last year's Repco Rally Australia near Kyogle.

Poll

Do you think Repco Rally Australia will return to Tweed next year?

This poll ended on 04 October 2010.

Yes

51%

No

48%

This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

ORGANISED opposition to next year’s Repco Rally Australia could sink the event, according to Rally Australia chairman Alan Evans.

But the No Rally group suspects this is an empty threat designed to build local sympathy.

Mr Evans confirmed yesterday there was a strong possibility the event would not run in the area in 2011 if anti-rally organisations did not come to the negotiating table.

He wanted to ensure there were no repeats of the “incidents we got at last year’s rally”.

“At this point I think it’s more likely we will end up going somewhere else,” Mr Evans told the Tweed Daily News yesterday.

“A rally in the Northern Rivers is not 100 per cent confirmed to go ahead just yet.

“We want to run the rally there, we’re keen to run it there, but what we need to do is make sure we don’t get a repeat of the incidents we got at last year’s rally.”

The Australian leg of the World Rally Championships made international headlines last September, but often for the wrong reasons.

Most noticeable were allegations that rocks were thrown by protesters on a Byrrill Creek stage of the rally.

Police said there was no evidence to support the claim.

Mr Evans said he was ready to sit down with anti-rally groups to discuss an independent review of the 2009 event tabled in New South Wales Parliament last month.

“We’ve indicated we’re prepared to accept the review and the recommendations made in it,” he said. “I see no signal that they’re prepared to discuss things. If they do I will sit down for as long as it takes.”

Mr Evans said a good response from the community was vital to ensure the rally’s future.

“Unless we get positive feedback from community we will take the $30 million economic input and go somewhere else, and the anti-rally groups will be left to explain why that has happened,” he said.

“We’ve already begun looking at alternative ven-ues.”

No Rally Group spokesman Michael McNamara said the group had rejected an olive branch from the Homebush Motor Racing Authority, which provided assistance with the approvals for the rally, to discuss the possible 2011 event.

“We’re not interested in helping to run the event,” Mr McNamara said.

“Our preferred options is and has always been that it doesn’t take place in the Northern Rivers.”

He said he was not fully opposed to a meeting. “We would want to know what’s on the table.

“I believe these are just empty threats to pull out of the region. They want to blame one section of the community to bolster their own local support.”

Read more:

Plea made to ensure rally stays