fro and the cowboy monkey

Went to Subaru Safari Tasmania. Could not find a bluddy scallop pie for love nor money. What's the go, Taswegia? Pimp your wierd-arse sea-based organism pastries, and then not deliver.

Then I've been crook, and un-motivated. Who wants to read about that? No-one, that's who.

Looks like I might make it to Toyota Rally SA, though, so that's good.

180Bee has all doors on it again. Still got a bent lower control arm and radius rod, though, so that'll need to be fixed this week to make it to Giro d'Inverno in a fortnight's time.

Oh, and I'm addicted to Tour de France. Thank god it ends tonight. My sleep patterns might return to something resembling normal.

That is all.

...for Capital Motor Sport News, and whilst I'll link to it, seeing how I'm the author, I figure that gives me the right to reproduce it here. Mac (CMSN Editor) called me to get my take on the subject, and I pumped this out over lunch. Not my best work, but not as god-awful as I feared it may have sounded...

Why does the Rally of Canberra matter?

The (ex-Subaru) Rally of Canberra has been in the news of late, for all the wrong reasons. Conjecture from ACT Government Minister-For-All-Things-Unpopular, Andrew Barr, raised the possibility of the demise of the Rally of Canberra. Apparently, this is even more likely should the event not be able to secure a sponsor.

The Rally of Canberra has existed in some form for over twenty five years; from the days of Don Capasco and Castrol rallies, through to its Esanda, FAI and Subaru incarnations. It has helped to shape motorsport in the territory, which has then produced national champions like Greg Carr and Neal Bates.

That the event was run by one of the guises of the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation for the last ten years is an indicator of how the ACT Government reasoned its involvement for so long.

What better than a mud-slinging weekend of speed in the forest to counter Canberra's image as a staid and boring town, whilst highlighting its green-aligned surrounds and design?

And it's inclusion as a round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship was part of a plan to put Canberra on the map internationally, hopefully attracting the increasingly-courted Asian tourist dollar.

But Capital Motorsport News isn't a soapbox for economic, political or social comment. You all want to know, what impact does Rally of Canberra have on ACT motorsport? The answer is, plenty.

Like the boom in interest during any elite sporting event, the Rally of Canberra was many peoples first introduction to rallying, and through that, motorsport.

Look at the boom in interest in Soccer since the Socceroos entry into World Cup contention. Or the bubble around various sports around the time of the Olympics. With the annual event of the Rally of Canberra, local motorsport received that bump in interest. And local rallying got most of the benefits (and the occasional drawback).

Events of the scale of Rally of Canberra require more officials to be drafted than any locally run event. And those officials then get co-opted for events throughout the year. Training is something that is done on-the-job (if at all) at most club-level rallies, and yet Rally of Canberra has provided training for hundreds of time control officials through the years, many of which have gone on to further involvement at lower level events.

It has sparked interest in some that has lead to their rise through the rallying ranks (I'd like to think of myself amongst that group!). And it has even caught some people’s attention enough to turn them into competitors.

From the Rally of Canberra ranks, the local rallying clubs have access to a greater pool of officials. Some may bring with them expectations that Rally of Canberra has built, that aren't true of club-level rallying. But some of those expectations, like new equipment, have meant that old equipment becomes available for clubs to use.

Various government bodies gain an understanding that rallying is a sport that is strictly governed, as opposed to the uninformed image of hoons in the forest.

With no round of the NEC Computers Australian Rally Championship (ARC) to be held in NSW this year, the Rally of Canberra took up the challenge of being the Australian Rally Championship round in the region.

Without a Rally of Canberra, nor a NSW ARC round on the horizon, there is no flagship event for the sport in the state, and no vehicle for the next Neal Bates or Chris Atkinson to showcase their talents.

From talk of being a WRC-contender in 2005, to a possible non-event in 2007, it's a sad story for both the event, and the sport.