A campaign is under way to bring a World Rally Championship round to Tauranga in 2018.
New Zealand is one of five nations in the running, having last hosted the championship in 2012.
Rally New Zealand chairman Peter Johnston says Australia effectively ‘stole' the event from us, and his organisation has been trying to get it back ever since.
'We were meant to be on a rotation system, but unfortunately Australia has tried to keep it to themselves. But in recent months we've been lobbying very hard to get the rally back to New Zealand.”
There are several countries to trying to secure the rally for 2018, however, including Chile, Turkey, China and Japan.
He says Tauranga is Rally New Zealand's first preference to hold the event, for the dynamics of the scenery, the facilities, and the accessibility to 'wonderful” rally roads.
'We're really pushing for Tauranga to be a WRC destination.
'We were fortunate to have the WRC promoter come to the city last week. We showed them all the local facilities and the roads in the region. They were very impressed.”
Regardless of what happens, Peter says a rally event will be coming to Tauranga in 2017, partly as means of testing the roads and conditions out – so watch this space.
4 comments
will bring in more tourists
Posted on 29-11-2016 12:28 | By kurgan
than some stupid designer cycle bridge
kurgan
Posted on 29-11-2016 13:40 | By maildrop
mmm....a one off event versus something that will draw tourists to the region year after year for many years. In the cost/benefit analysis my money is on the bridge/cycle trail. Plus the rally will see a spike in the road toll when the idiots get all excited and think they can drive like that on the open roads. Can't wait.
Just what Tauranga needs
Posted on 29-11-2016 14:41 | By BennyBenson
Cars ripping up our already inadequate roads. Who's fitting the bill for the repairs?
The usual halfwitted comments are coming out
Posted on 29-11-2016 19:31 | By mutley
This will be the biggest sporting event to ever come to Tauranga and yet there is always the ignorant detractors who clearly have no idea of what they are writing about. When public roads are used the reinstatement of them is paid for by the event. The annual event is viewed by an international TV audience of 500 million. We only need to see a small fraction of the TV audience to choose NZ as their next holiday destination, for the Rally or not, and we will have a useful increase in visitor numbers. It is not a matter of one attraction or the other; the rally does not detract from the cycleway it compliments and promotes it. If more NZ drivers took part in motorsport or similar driver training we would see a reduction of bad driving - proven fact. Let's stick to the facts please.
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