Photo: Alex KelseyAfter months of planning it has been announced that a new motorsport Rally series will be run in the North Island for the 2012 season. Based on the highly popular Rally Xtreme series of a few years ago, the Xtreme Rally Challenge will see some exciting and fresh innovations in this new format.
The series is being organised by a highly motivated group of competitors and administrators who are concerned that the sport of rallying has become ever more unachievable for the average competitor. With the current economic climate adding to the issue of rising costs this group has been working hard behind the scenes to come up with a solution to keep the sport rallying alive through these uncertain times.
Following many discussions to formulate and design a structure to cater for the needs of most competitors, this series looks to address the key issues of cost, and the amount of time competitors and officials have to spend away from work and families.
With this in mind the basis of the 2012 Xtreme Rally Challenge will be a five round series, where each round is a one day event, all to be run within the North Island. However tailor made packages will be introduced to assist South Island competitors.
“We have adopted a 'run what you bring' style for the series”, says Geoff Argyle who is one of the organisers. “It will be open to all cars that meet the normal safety requirements in Schedule A and any entrant can win the series outright”, he adds.
A significant aspect of the new series will be the TV package that is being put together. Each round will get a one hour TV highlights package to be screened free to air on TV3.
This TV coverage will start with the lead-in event for the series, the fantastic and very challenging Whariti Hillclimb in Woodville, Manawatu.
From there the five rounds of The Xtreme Rally Challenge are:
• Rally Wairarapa
• Possum Borne Memorial Rally (to be confirmed as a round)
• Maramarua Rally
• Paihia Rally of the North
• Daybreaker Rally
All rounds will be a one day event (or contested on only one day of a multi day rally) with pace notes permitted on all rounds. In order to keep the series popular for the large variety of cars and competitors in the country, the classes have been structured to accommodate this diversity.
• Xtreme Rally Challenge - Open 4WD (36mm restrictor, 1240kg min weight)
• Class One - 4WD pre 2000 (no purpose built cars)
• Class Two - 4WD club (Pre Evo and WRX) VR4, Legacy, Mazda 323 etc.
• Class Three - 2WD open (all 2WD competitors)
• Class Four - Classic (as per Otago Rally Regs)
• Class Five - 2WD club (no dog gearboxes)
There will also be a non pace note category for any competitor who wishes to compete in the challenge without pace notes.
Every competitor is eligible for the title of ‘Xtreme Rally Challenge Champion’ where points will accrue based on where they finish overall in each event, and the person with the highest points tally will take the silverware.
“We believe that this class structure will assist every rally competitor, from a low budget through to the top end rally competitor,” says Argyle.
Another new innovation will be the points structure, which is designed to award high achievements. Overall points will be 1st 52 points, 2nd 47, 3rd 44, 4th 43, 5th 42 and so on right through to two points. Class points will also be determined by your overall position on the event.
For example if you are in Class One and you finish 4th overall you get 43 points and the next class one competitor finishes 10th they will get 37 points (the same as overall).
The series will also adopt the World Rally Championship innovations of a power stage on each event, and allow competitors to rejoin in a similar way to SupeRally rules. This allows competitors to still compete even after missing a special stage, where for example their time for any missed stage will be the fastest class time plus 5 minutes (depending on the stage length).
The series entry fee is also structured to assist most competitors’ budget while still providing valuable exposure and promotion opportunities.
