Hosting a World Rally Championship event in South Africa
author: Leon Botha
|
Leon Botha
Where has all the rally folks gone to?
|
Having the Kenyan Safari Rally withdrawn from the world rally championship was a heavy blow to Africa.
A round in Turkey replaced this traditional rally for 2003 after failing to overcome financial and safety problems in recent years, but it may not be missing for long.
It was a sour taste left in the mouth of the championship after series sponsor Innmarsat were required to support the event financially and who can forget the dust bowl service, which literally swallowed cars, but the championship needs the Safari Rally back.
|
Leon Botha
A little less dust will not hurt - but it needs to be AFRICA!
|
Richards: "We will have a rally in Africa again I am sure in the near future," he said. In 2002, a third of the stages were held on closed roads in a bid to increase safety and reduce costs and this is seen as a key to the events place in the calendar.
It is likely that any event may be held in South Africa rather then Kenya and feature a more compact route focusing on closed special stages.
Although the Safari Rally can be a car breaker and a rally of survival as much as competition, its integral part in the flavour of the world rally championship will be a welcome return. It is the one event that is closer to the classic heritage of the sport and even if it is adjusted to fit in with the newer format, an event on the African continent is essential.
This should have made South Africa Motorsport control sit up? But did it?
If we look at the fierce brokering from countries to establish a round of the World Rally Championship for themselves, and the lack of room in the calendar, it certainly warrants more than just a single sit-up, or the opening of one eye for some people from the current siesta when an opportunity like this comes up. If this is not a way to tell South Africa that “here is a WRC event for you”, then we don’t know.
Rallying has arrived – big time worldwide!
It will be the sport of the future where the adrenaline injectors will be squirting excitement all over millions of TV viewers, readers and spectators world-wide. There is no extreme sport at the moment that can even start competing with the excitement of and talent in top level rallying. I will love to see some of the F1 drivers compete on this level.
It is not clear how far the initiative of the group who proposed a Cape event last year has advanced, but the sounds of silence hanging over the rally scene about this issue is scary.
Scary not because we may miss out on this opportunity, but also because we may never bridge the gap between our, and other countries regarding the real marketing potential rallies offer.
Do we have to be content forever that nobody really accepts responsibility to market this sport or business? Will we once again sit back and watch this motorsport opportunity go by because it seems that no one knows who should be doing what?
If we do have a body in place overlooking the interest of rallying, promoting and obtaining the sponsorships it deserves, I would like to know about it.
Why do our youngsters have to go overseas to follow a motorsport career? It is logical that there will be a substantial gap in the sponsorships and earnings of local, and overseas drivers, but does it have to be this big?
Giniel de Villiers proved in the Telefonica Dakar rally that given a chance we do have the talent needed to make a serious impact on the rally scene. Nissan proved that we can actually build cars that will compete with the best. That however is not the main issue, getting a WRC rally to South Africa that is the issue. After that the rest of the ingredients will follow automatically.
What is needed is a combined effort from all the organising clubs where for once in the history of rallying (motorsport) we stand together and take the right decisions.
The persons elected to handle rally affairs were actually not elected with something of this magnitude in mind and we need to sit down and look at all the angles carefully. I am not saying that the present commission is not competent, all I am saying is that this issue is too important not to receive the maximum attention of every person that carries the sport at heart.
We also need to get professional marketing people involved in rallying, people that will be able to sell this incredible product to the private and public sector.
We need to promote the sport with everything we have got regardless of the temporary handicaps we are stuck with. Only an idiot will ignore the immense potential we are being offered on a tray, and believe me the offer is there.
If it is true that someone in control said that we do not have the infrastructure to present a World Championship Rally, then we need to see that the specific person, or persons are either removed, or woken up. There has also been rumour that someone is of the opinion that such a rally will “use up the sponsorship money for other events!” Now that can simply not be true, nobody can actually believe that?
It is our duty to look at the situation from a business and economic perspective. We also need to think about the fact that such a rally needs to be presented where we do have a typical -, or true-Africa situation.
It should not at this stage be decided where the event should be organised. This situation should be carefully analysed, as the event needs the traditional Africa impact.
We need to ensure that this would become a permanent South African event, and that the country will benefit as much as possible from it. This may not be turned into a “fat cat situation” we need to co-operate to ensure the success and continuity of such an event.
The time to officially apply for an event in 2004 is now, not November 2003. Africa needs its event back; South Africa needs to host it.
So let us all work together and put rallying in South Africa on the map!
|
Leon Botha
and we will all be jumping for joy!
|
|
|
