The 2010 season for the Australian Rally Championship kicks of in Tasmania this weekend. In the coastal town of Burnie, the series will open with its only tarmac Rally of the Season.
The year shapes as a big one of the series as it seeks to reclaim some of it's former glory. It is expected the Championship will return to Victoria later this year, in a move many see as vital to the long term future of the series. The Championship is slated to be contested over 6 rounds.
Rally Tasmania itself is celebrating 30 years and will host a field of over 50 competitors. The event features some of the best stages on the Rally Calendar and will finish up with the final stage featuring 2 runs through the town of Burnie itself on Sunday afternoon. The event is 19 stages and competitors will cover over 210 Kilometres during the event.
Defending series champion Simon Evens returns with a private entry Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
Speaking after a short testing run today Evans was pleased with the new car "Great conditions out there- the road was a little bit short for my liking- but it was interesting. First time in the Subaru on the tarmac and having a ball.The car's pretty impressive, it's nice and balanced. No changes planned- the car's perfect- just drive it!"
2009 runner up Glen Raymond will be a strong challenger with a brand new Mitusbishi Evo at his disposal.
"We have all worked so hard over the summer break to get this car ready," stated driver Glen Raymond. "We have spent the time and prepared a car that is not only to full world rally standards, but that would also put some show cars to shame!" The striking new paint scheme, which was prepared by Darryl at Blackwell Bodyworks, has already impressed the public at the launch and will no doubt be a crowd pleaser.
Jumping from the Subaru as his brother comes in is Eli Evans who will run a Honda Civic Type R this year.
Eli also was happy after testing "The first thing I noticed about the new Civic Type R was the way it took off at the start line- two big black lines and off it went! I was in 6th gear before I knew it! It was a bit of a wakeup call. The car's already very competitive we're posting impressive times up there with some of the leading cars."
Also returning to the series will be Scott Pedder, a former champion of the series. Pedder is also the new head of the ARC and is passionate in his drive and clear vision on what the series needs to do this year.
Scott was another driver to take part in the Thursday test session "Driving on tarmac- it's very different. Obviously I'm not overly experienced on tarmac, but we made a few changes that made the car better. It's exciting to return to the ARC and you never lose the passion for it. It's just exciting to be back in such a great championship"
Stepping up the ARC level of competition will be 2 time Victorian Champion Mark Fawcett. Fawcett will compete in the Premier League, a division that allow competitors to take part in ARC rounds but not commit to the full ARC season.
“I needed an new challenge this year, and the chance to do some new events, especially the tarmac in Tasmania was a real draw card for me so I made the decision at the start of the year to take the next step” said Mark.
At this stage Fawcett will contest the Tasmanian, Rally SA and Victorian Rounds of the series.
As the event is a Tarmac Rally a different compound tyre is required. Supplier Kumho has flown some 150 tyres in from it's Korean headquarters for the event. The arrangement with the ARC sees the tyres made available to the teams at the reduced price of $231 each greatly helping balance the teams budgets. Sadky those using the new Evo X would not have ben able to use the tyres originally planned for the event, leading to change in the tyre chosen.
According to Kumho Motor sport coordinator John Mills the company had originally nominated the Kumho V70A tarmac competition tyre for Rally Tasmania however this tyre was not suitable for the new Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.
“Kumho R&D engineers were not willing to sign off on the V70A for the Evo X as it required a different load rating tyre, so to ensure that every competitor could use the same tyres and be on an equal footing Kumho decided to airfreight enough CO3 tarmac competition tyres for all ARC entrants in Tassie,” said John Mills.
“Potentially the load rating issue with the V70A and the Evo X would have only affected two or three competitors competing in these cars on Rally Tasmania but Kumho’s role as the control tyre supplier is to ensure that everyone has the same rubber,” he added.
“The load rating situation only affected the Evo X and only applies to the V70 A tarmac tyres, the R700, R800 and R900 gravel tyres we will use in the remaining five ARC rounds meet the requirements for all currently homologated cars,” said John Mills.
“We sourced the CO3 tarmac rally tyres from both Korea and the UK to ensure we had sufficient stock and sizes to supply all ARC competitors,” he added.
