Globalstar Australian Rally Championship

What is the ARC?

The Globalstar Australian Rally Championship (ARC) is a dynamic 6 round national motorsport championship run in stunning forested countryside throughout Australia.

The Globalstar ARC takes in some of the country’s most stunning locations and starts in the coastal tourist town of Busselton, near Margaret River in WA. The series then travels to the Sunshine Coast town of Caloundra before heading to the southern forests of Tasmania. From there the championship heads to the Barossa Valley for South Australia’s event and then on to the Central Coast of NSW near Wyong before the grand finale in the Yarra Valley wine region and a final flourish around De Bortoli Winery.

The championship itself is a highly competitive series, featuring a host of talented teams all racing the clock for the honour of being champion. The series has support from manufacturers Subaru, Mitsubishi and Toyota and is boosted by a host of top quality privateer teams all capable of notching wins.
The competition itself is stunningly close, with drivers trading stage time over the gravel stages and often finishing just tenths of seconds ahead of their rivals.

In the forest, the action is thrilling. Cars slide sideways through high-speed corners and dodge and dive over challenging crested roads as the team-work between driver and co-driver is tested to the limit.
Each event runs over two competitive days, with points scored by the top ten placed teams on each day. The final victor is decided by the most successful combination over the two days competition.

Each event supports the outright competition with a gala start and finish to ensure the fans get what they came for. One of the most accessible and friendly motorsports in the world, fans can easily mingle with teams and grab autographs and have a talk to their heroes before the teams race off the forest.

The Globalstar Australian Rally Championship is well supported by a range of companies who recognise the value of the thrilling championship. Companies such as Toyota, Subaru and Mitsubishi showcase the cars to the fans and TV audience with strong manufacturer entries in the championship.

The series commercial partner IMG ensures the stakeholders in the sport are well looked after and supports such companies as Globalstar who has this year claimed the naming rights to the series.

Globalstar has recognised the value of the series is a truly national motorsport series, with strong links to the regional communities just outside the capital cities throughout Australia. Those in the championship realise the value of having a company like Globalstar on board and are looking forward to a great future with the communications company.

Additional to this impressive collection of companies are the major events sponsors; Respect Yourself, Caloundra Tourism and Falken Tyres, Subaru, Coopers Pale Ale and NGK who are central to the success of each of the individual events.

Network Ten’s role as the host broadcaster of the series is paramount to the media success and recognition of the sport and partners such as ELF Fuels –the control fuel supplier, Motorsport Safety and Rescue – looking after competitor safety, recherché for results and the rally.com.au website are all central to the success of this growing championship.
So sit back and enjoy the action in 2004. 2003 was a stunning season for action and excitement and with the new driver/team combinations in 2004 it is likely that this season will go one better and deliver even greater thrills in the forest.

Who’s hot?

The guy at the top of the tree in 2004 will be Subaru lead Cody Crocker who will carry number one in this year’s Globalstar Australian Rally Championship.

Crocker, and co-driver Greg Foletta, will go into the event as favourites but 2004 will be no walk in the park for the Subaru pair.

One of the threats will come from team-mates Dean Herridge and Glenn Macneall, who showed speed and determination last year and the ability to match with Crocker.

The Ed Ordynski/Juha Kangas combination for Mitsubishi will be one to watch and both drivers feel confident in the strength of the line up for the 2004 season. Ordynski got close last year but he and co-driver Iain Stewart didn’t convert and the Mitsubishi driver has some business to finish.

In the Toyota Team the combination of Neal Bates and Simon Evans makes this team one of the most exciting combinations in the sport. A lot is expected of the Toyota Team and both Bates, with Coral Taylor alongside and Evans, with wife Sue in the co-drivers seat will be hoping to run at the very front of the competitive field.

Outside of the factory combinations, drivers like Scott and Mark Pedder, Brad Goldsbrough, Mark Thompson, Michael Thompson and some of the young drivers like Will Orders, Sam Brand and Jack Monkhouse will probably shake up the tree.

One of the most watched group of drivers will be those in the Subaru Challenge one make series. There are a lot of fast and exciting young drivers that have entered the series and its possible that future champions of the sport will come out of this thrilling series.

The depth of talent in the ARC just continues to grow and the names here just the tip of the iceberg in terms of talent in the forest. Stay tuned for some new names in 2004 as the march of champions begins.

Australian rallying compared to Asia and the world

The Australian Rally Championship has the reputation of being one of the closest and most exciting regional championships in the world and, as such, an attractive prospect for internationals (like current competitor Juha Kangas) to compete.

We pride ourselves on the competitiveness of the championship and the depth of competition at every round of the series.

We have been fortunate enough to see a number of our talented drivers take off to pursue drives in the Asia-Pacific Championship and jaunts to Europe to expand their experience.

One of our best known champions, the late Possum Bourne really put Australia on the map in terms of recognition. Others have also ventured there and recently, Chris and Ben Atkinson secured their second season in the Asia-Pacific Championship and the crew has a bright future ahead of them.

For the ARC competitors, having the chance to compete against their Asia-Pacific counterparts at the manufacturer round – the Rally of Canberra and to take on world competition at Rally Australia in Perth is a great opportunity to match it with the best.

The impact of the success of the World Rally Championship is doubtless and the opportunity the ARC has to run some similar specification cars to the WRC is a real strength of our series.

Different Classes

The Australian Rally Championship caters to range of different competitors in the series and with a number of classes and categories, competitors can start rallying at the level that best suits their budget.

The outright competition is fought out amongst the names of rallying and is the ultimate test for the competitors at the pointy end of the field.

Another award that is desirable for competitors to chase is the Privateers Cup for competitors who don’t have support form the manufacturer teams.

The F16 Championship is the small car category (1600cc, 2WD) and a budget level place to start rallying. The outright winner of the championship is an Australian champion in the small car category and is added to the record books.

The Aussie Cup is the Australian award for large cars (over 2500cc) that enables competitors in the big cars to run popular passenger car models.

Amongst the outright awards are the opportunities to chase individual class awards that are based on car capacity and specification which gives competitors the opportunity to pursue class victories.

Subaru One Make Series

In 2004, the Australian Rally Championship welcomes the Subaru Rally Challenge as the official one-make series to develop new drivers and teams into the sport.

The quality of the Subaru Challenge field is quite outstanding and the winner and runners up of the inaugural series will be awarded a range of outstanding prizes by organisers Subaru.

The series runs identical-spec 2.5 Subaru Impreza RS vehicles. The series is designed to identify new talent in the sport and provide opportunity for young drivers to take a step up into the outright championship.

(Credit: Globalstar Australian Rally Championship)

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