Issues Facing Australian Rallying

There have been unprecedented changes in global finances, leaving the overall economic environment particularly uncertain.  The vehicle industry in particular has been very hard hit resulting in discretionary spending in areas and financial support for motorsport virtually drying up.  Several championships, teams and competitors have no financial support, leaving them with no options but to stop competing.

While some commercial support will continue to flow to rallying, it is most unlikely that there will be the same degree of extensive commercial support flowing into rallying at the higher levels as had been evident in the late 1990’s through to around 2005.

Motorsport, and rallying in particular, due to its reliance on large numbers of volunteers will have to contend with major shifts in demographics over the next 5-10 years.  The Australian population is ageing and this may impact on levels of participation and the capacity of people to volunteer in officiating roles and in grassroots management of the sport.  People are living longer, working longer and spending longer hours at work - with increasing pressure on leisure time.  Coupled with the uncertain financial climate, rallying will have to consider how to evolve the sport to remain viable in an environment of decreasing volunteer resources.

Across all sports there is some evidence that people are moving away from organised sport, citing lack of time, increased costs, risk management concerns and lack of interest. This is a major issue we have to address.

In rallying the emergence of entrepreneurial providers is creating tension with more traditional club-based models of event organisation and promotion.  Organisers are under increasing pressure from government regulatory bodies to demonstrate their application of risk management and duty of care responsibilities resulting in greatly increased administrative workloads for even simple events.  Organisers themselves feel obliged to implement extreme measures that reduce risk to very low levels to satisfy landowners, councils, government regulators, insurers and approval agencies (and their lawyers) so as to minimise the exposure of themselves, their volunteers and their Clubs to legal liability.  The net result of the combination of these circumstances is that there is dwindling numbers of volunteers with the energy to promote events and the cost of organising events with such high administrative overheads makes simple competitions expensive to enter.  To remain successful the delivery of rallying will need to be managerially competent, strategically focussed and competitor and volunteer oriented.

On the environmental front the perception that motorsport is an unsustainable luxury activity consuming resources and releasing emissions must be addressed.  While the reality is that motor sport emissions are so small in the great scheme of things that it is unlikely that the cost alone (price of oil, carbon tax, other taxes) will be the cause of rallying becoming unsustainable.  However, the environmental perception of the sport may be such that withdrawal of sponsorship due to not wanting to be associated, falling TV revenues due to societal disapproval, or some government edict could potentially render rallying (and motor sport more generally) economically unsustainable.

Some of the key challenges that fall out from these strategic level issues are:

• Making a luxury activity like rallying relevant and accessible to a broad cross section of the community when demographic change is ocurring
• Attracting and working with commercial partners and sponsors in an amateur sport in difficult economic times
• Fostering increased participation, including in regional centres
• Identifying and building on successful events and formats
• Simultaneously encouraging both the elite and grassroots levels
• Identifying new sources of income through effective marketing of services and opportunities
• Attracting, training and retaining organisers and volunteers
• Managing risk with an eye on the costs of participating
• Addressing internal and external bureaucracy and administrative overservicing
• Identifying opportunities to work cooperatively with other sports/users to strategically managing encroachment of traditional rally areas
• Balancing the need for timely decision making with the desire to communicate and consult effectively with stakeholders

Our Vision

Our vision aims to describe what we want rallying to be and to look like into the future.

“To grow rallying to be vibrant, responsible and sustainable at every level”

Our mission

To foster safe enjoyment of rallying in all its forms.

To promote and improve rallying as a sport that is recognised, accepted and respected.

To provide a range of opportunities for people to enjoy and participate in the adventure and challenge of rallying

To have efficient and effective administrative management systems that support growing the sport.

Our stakeholders

Rallying is a broad dscipline of motorsport and takes in a range of different event types from touring road events, tarmac rallies through to international events at the world championship level.  Such a broad dicipline has a large number of stakeholders including:

Our core values

• We value the mateship and camraderie engendered by participation and/or association with competition
• We foster inclusiveness – the fact that anyone can enter any level of rally event is important to us
• We want to be proactive about doing whatever we can to provide for competitors to assist one another
• We emphasise participation, teamwork and adventure in our events rather than speed and winning for its own sake
• We create a safe environment for competitions to take place
• We recognise that we must undertake our sport in a sustainable way with the support of government and the community
• We reward endurance and reliability
• We promote excitement – doing skids, going sideways, getting air and feeling an adrenaline rush is an important part of our extreme sport
• We value competition against the clock more than competition against other competitors
• Our sporting competitions are conducted in a friendly atmosphere
• We provide a range of opportunities to be involved – as a competitor, vounteer official, support crew
• The remote settings where our sport is conducted is a valuable point of differentiation with other motorsport.

Our Objectives

Objective 1

To promote a diversity of events that provide a range opportunities for people to participate in rally events — comensurate with their aspirations, skill levels and budgets.

Objective 2

To identify practical measures that enhace the safety of competitors, volunteers and the general public consistent with our core values

Objective 3

To ensure that rallying remains financially secure through generating a diversity of revenue streams into the discipline

Objective 4

To attract and retain a strong volunteer base to support the sport

Objective 5

To have the minimum number of simple rules necessary to ensure competitions are fair and to provide for efficient and effective administration and management of the sport

Objective 6

To implement simple vehicle eligibility regulations with the overall aim of benefitting a majority of stakeholders most of the time (and consistent with meeting other objectives)

Objective 7

To ensure we communicate effectively with our stakeholders and that they understand and are engaged and participate in the administration of their sport

Our Critical Issues

1. 1. Supporting Volunteers and Officials
2. 2. Technical Regulations and Eligibility
3. 3. Communications and Engagement with Stakeholders
4. 4. Supporting Competitors
5. 5. Promoting Events
6. 6. Safety
7. 7. Accessibility and sustainability
8. 8. Finance, Budget and Governance
9. 9. Opening the Doors to New Competitors