World Rally Championship stars arrive
August 31, 2009 by Anthony Crawford
If you’re 25-years-old or under, then you will know exactly what the letters WRC stand for.
By Anthony Crawford
The World Rally Championship is big business all over the globe, and made famous by millions of Xbox and Playstation gamers, driving the world’s best rally cars in some of the toughest rallies on the planet, without ever leaving their lounge rooms.
But before the gamers, came the legendary Scottish driver, the late Colin McRae, and his hugely popular 555 Subaru World Rally Team car, which formed the basis of the WRC game series.
When I say big, I mean over 5600 hours of WRC TV programming were broadcast across 228 channels in 132 countries around the world, and that was in 2008, whereas 2009 has been bigger, despite on rally.
And then there’s the website, WRC.com, which attracted an average of 5.6 million page views per month and growing day-by-day.
It’s hard to know who are the better drivers, the Formula One pilots or the WRC magicians? The French superstar, Sebastian Loeb was asked that very question in this morning’s press conference.
He said, its an impossible question to answer, as both forms of motor sport require a different skills set although, he was quick to acknowledge that Mika Hakkinen had surprised many people with his debut performance in the recent Arctic Rally, in Finland.
This year’s tenth round of the WRC is the Repco Rally Australia, and is being run in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. Key places include centres like Kingscliff and Murwillumbah, which means plenty of opportunity for spectators to get up close and personal, to what should be some electrifying high speed magic.
Just three points separates reigning champion Loeb and current leader Mikko Hirvonen, so you can bet that both drivers will be pushing their cars relentlessly across all stages.
You may not have heard of Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi from the United Arab Emirates. He drives for the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team along with teammate Jari-Matti Latvala.
The word is, that the Sheikh is keen to get home to the Emirates, where he has a brand new Bugatti Veyron sitting in his garage, which he has barely driven.
And while Norway’s gifted Petter Solberg may not competing in Australia this year, his equally talented brother Henning Solberg, who is two series points ahead of Petter, will be driving for a podium.
We also have an Australian by the name of Chris Atkinson, who will be driving a Citroen C4 WRC for the Citroen Junior Team.
Chris, who was previously with Subaru before they pulled the plug on the program, is currently 14th in the standings, with four championship points to his credit.
We are down to the business end of the season, with just two events remaining in the series, Spain and Wales, so the driving will be ferocious and a treat for spectators.
If you do decide to treat yourself to some of the world’s most talented driving, Murwillumbah is the place to be each night, when the Tweed Super Special Stages are run. These will be the pick stages of Repco Rally Australia, where you will close to all the action.
CarAdvice will be at the WRC event, and will bring you plenty of great action shots of the cars.
WRC Teams 2009
- Citroen Total World Rally Team
Based: Versailles, France
Car: Citroen C4 WRC
Drivers: Sebastian Loeb, Daniel Sordo
- BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
Based: Cumbria, England
Car: Ford Focus RS WRC
Drivers: Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala, Khalid Al Qassimi
- Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team
Based: Cumbria, England
Car: Ford Focus RS WRC
Drivers: Matthew Wilson, Urmo Aava, Henning Solberg
- Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team
Based: Cumbria, England
Car: Ford Focus RS WRC
Drivers: Federico Villagra
- Citroen Junior Team
Based: Versailles, France
Car: Citroen C4 WRC
Drivers: Conrad Rautenbach, Evgeny Novikov, Sebastien Ogier, Chris Atkinson
Print it: 
i did the wrx experience and v8 racecar drive and i have to say rallying is very difficult to master. on the subject of wrc i’m not sure if it’s me or does anyone find the sports getting boring? you used to have sti and evo in the sport. now the teams are getting less and less and i don’t even bother watching it on tv anymore.
Its in my town, this is the most awesome thing to ever come to the tweed valley. I really can’t believe the little unknown Murwillumbah is hosting the WRC.
I do hope that more manufactures will get back into the sport
not sure about your opening statement – such a damn shame we let it go from WA. Red Bull Air race or WRC – you take your pick.
Gambler88, shame on you. You don’t need more than two manufacturers to have a vibrant, wide-appeal motor sport competition. In fact, by suggesting that there should be a bit more diversity with more than two manufacturers, you’re actively undermining the sport and just prove that you don’t understand it. Personally the WRC has never been in a better state since it became a Ford/Holden two-way event. TV viewing figures prove that people only want to see a big Ford or Holden V8 being pushed into a Scandinavian flick, and you can go and bugger off if you think an M3, Sierra or Skyline is going to make that more enjoyable!
Wait a minute…
more cars IS better for many reasons…..there is more compition so drivers are really pushing……..there are more seats for new drivers…..if you watch wrc 95 on youtube and compare it to today you will understand why more manufactures are better………….and no wrc cars are v8s they are capped to 2.0l 4 cylinder..and soon 2 be 1.6l …..and rally drivers dont use scandinavian flicks that much anymore, the cars are alot more responsive so dont require them………by the way m3 e30s are the best…….seirras are also….and skylines are good cars…r33 looks best
I’m going on Saturday! Woo! Just wanted to share :). P.S. I hope the rumours about VW and Fiat for next year are true and Chris Atkinson can get a proper drive again.
Watch out for all the ferals and wacky weed smokers from Nimbin, lol.
Hey CA, you forgot to put the dates up for this event.
The 2009 WCR has one other unigue feature: a large amd motivated opposition among the local communities through which the race will travel. This could well be the most controversial and unpopular Rally yet staged. Protesters have made it clear that they do not want the rally this year or in the future and that drivers and their vehicles are not welcome. They have promised to make their views known legally and peacefully.
Your opening comment in this article says it all: WRC is big business globally with gamers driving the world’s best rally cars in some of the toughest rallies on the planet. I have moved on from fanging round the bush and think it is high time the drivers go back to their lounge rooms and act like adults, taking responsibility as mature individuals who are aware of the monstrous carbon footprint of flying vehicles and crew around the world to run over iconic wildlife and trash peaceful rural lives and livelihoods. If you want to eat dust go and live along one of the roads used in this event and it will wear thin in no time flat. As the previous person noted, this round of the WRC is unique for widespread community opposition to the event and the uniquely North Coast way in which the protestors are co-operating with police to ensure creative and visible opposition gets seen and heard in a legal and peaceful manner.
I miss Subaru and Mitsubushi. Its totally different without them.
Why are you on a motoring enthusiast website Rob if you believe we should all be cowering in our lounge rooms? “Monstrous carbon footprint..” do you really buy that garbage? This event happens every two years (if we’re lucky) and involves transporting a small number of cars crew and equipment.
“run over iconic wildlife and trash peaceful rural lives and livelihoods” Are you serious? Surely you are taking the pee. Have you actually driven these roads? Did you run over any platypus’/ emus?
Why don’t you turn your computer off and sit in the dark if you want to minimise your carbon footprint.
I can’t speak for Rob although I do endorse his comments. I wrote on a motoring enthusiast website because motoring enthusiasts need to be aware that there is major opposition to this race for very valid and varied reasons.
Philthy is the one who is ‘in the dark’ – he/she should be better informed about the endangered wildlife that will be impacted upon by this unnecessary race.
Please fill me in Bill. I was under the impression that the race is to be run on existing roads, through farmland, where vehicles already travel.
Residents along these roads usually travel at 25 – 40kph as the roads are usually in a shocking state of disrepair and there’s no point trashing our vehicles. We drive slowly to protect our investment, hence little danger to wildlife. I read motor sports because it is like a history lesson – where my own head was at before I grew up.
Don’t know which planet you inhabit Philthy, but where I live we have free electricity from the sun. Actually racing on roads is SOOOOOOOO last century! Read the article you’re responding to and the comment made by the author that the $$ in WRC are from the gaming!
As for the dust – get over it. Move to the bush if you want some. we’ve more than enough to go round so don’t need the extra thankyou very much!
I currently live on planet Gold Coast (sorry in advance). Just up the road. And no I don’t live in Kyogle, but did grow up in the country (Tamworth) and never saw a local driving on a dirt (or single lane bitumen) road at 25km/hr. If you’re going to make silly statements at least try to be a little more realistic.
I’m glad you get free electricity from the sun, good for you. I fail to see how that has anything to do with the article though. If you’re referring to my comment before, then I suggest you call your ISP and insist they change over to solar power too, just so you don’t burn any coal at all trying to spoil other people’s fun. P.S. I’m happy to support the environment, in fact I replaced all my incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents! And I take green bags to the supermarket.
Re. dust, I cleaned my carpet on the weekend and there was plenty of dust there so no, that’s not why I want to go see the rally. Sorry if you can’t reply until the sun comes out again tomorrow.
Lets hope these protesters don’t unnecessarily endanger the wildlife or pollute the atmosphere by driving their cars to the protest meeting.
Maybe they should ride their bicycles. Afterall, they wouldn’t want to be branded as hypocrites, would they? ;)
I sure do ride my bike!! I have a trailer that my two gorgeous kiddies ride in. Doesn\’t matter that there is only room for two kids. I can\’t have anymore children anyway because our local hospitals have no funding…our government seems to have beem misled into thinking that they need to invest in a prehistoric past (motor sports) and not our future (children raised sustainably).
Your choice of words highlights the ironic contradiction in your statement.
Your statement that the government “invests” in rally is accurate. It is an investment because the rally brings about a return (somewhere around $1.4 for every $1 spent).
Never fear “smarty”, you can have as many children as you like.
On behalf of rally enthusiasts everywhere, you’re welcome.
Yes that’s so. But cars driven at 45 to 80 kph do see, slow down and swerve to avoid wildlife. Cars doing up to 180kph will not. The race travels through the habitats of eleven nationally recognised endangered species – they don’t know to keep off the roads.
If the race was held out west in less sensitive areas, there would be no argument.
This area’s major source of income is from year-round visitors who come for the natural beauty. The rally threatens that, too.
Cynical comments like Falcodore’s add nothing to the debate and only reveal his / her ignorance. Inidentally, there are numerous and popular road and mountain bicycle races in this area that noone objects to.
Bill, get over yourself. Stop whinging about things that only MIGHT (probably wont) happen. It’s only for 3 days FFS.
And you dont think the rally will also be a major source of income for the region? You just revealed your ignorance right there!
I would be very surprised if the tourism income received by Murwillumbah, Kyogle and surrounds was reduced as a result of hosting this event. I also don’t see how the natural beauty of the area is threatened by vehicles travelling on established roads. At worst, some roadside vegetation in previously cleared areas may be walked on by spectators.
Also, the statement that this event passes through the habitat of 11 endangered species should probably be qualified by mentioning that the nearby pacific motorway (with a 110km/ hr speed limit) most likely passes though the habitat of many of these same species, if not more. Compare the volume of traffic on the hwy with that of the rally.
Hey whats with the new site format. I like it but prefer the old format more.
Just my opinion
Go WRC! Beats F1 senseless for entertainment!
Shadow Boxer, i don’t think you know what you’re talking about because you’re contradicting yourself with your comment. before attacking me, did you actually read the article fully and understand it? the last few paragraph clearly states that the cars were citrogen C4 and ford focus. i think you got mixed up between ralying and v8 supercar racing. i’ll forgive you for that. next time just read the article and try to understand it before barging into the comments section to express your feelings.
It’s a shame that Chris lost his Subaru drive. It was great to watch every round and see him stickin it to the big boys :D
Hopefully things pan out for him in the future ;)
Bill – what debate? It doesn’t matter what the organisers of the event say, it doesn’t matter what arguments they put forward, it doesn’t make any difference what anyone says, you guys will not change your mind, its car racing so you don’t like it and will find whatever reasons you can to be against it, you will ignore any counter arguments that are put up, you will just protest anyway just because you personally don’t agree with it, doesn’t matter that other people are passionate about the sport and love the sport, just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean their aren’t other people out there who do, there are a lot of people who are against the rally, but their are also a hell of a lot of people who are for it and can see the benefits for the region in hosting a very large internationally recongnised event and are going to benefit from the huge amounts of money that is going to flow into the local community and the small business owners who operate in the region, but no stuff them hey? you don’t like it and thats that!
Also Bill, your not the first region to host a rally in Australia, many many many regions in Australia has been hosting rallies for decades, and guess what! Those areas aren’t now barron waste lands with all the wildlife becoming road kill! Go look at Imbil which has been the location of Rally Queensland for years and years and years and years and guess what? The region is just as beautiful as it has ever been! And guess what? I have been an official at Rally Queensland for the last 2 years and as a result drove over all of the competitive stages of that rally after all of the cars had been through and have not yet seen any dead wildlife, not once have I seen a dead animal off to the side of the road yet, unlike what you will see on any highway in Australia.. Get your head out of the sand…
Does anyone know if spectators will be confined to grand stands, or can we cheer on from the side of the track at the stages?
By the way – Richo – I completely agree.
I probably shouldn’t get drawn into these arguments so much, but it is just so annoying when people protest against things for the sake of protesting, but for the sake of the argument lets pick up on some of the protestors fravorite points.
First the carbon impact of the event, don’t try and use this as an excuse! The carbon impact of the event would be the same no matter where the event was held, you haven’t been protesting against rallying all together, your only protesting against the location of the rally, the location makes no difference to the carbon impact of the event, so don’t give me that as a reason for the rally to not go ahead in this area.
The wildlife, the only threat to wildlife is the threat of animals being hit during the event, Bill says the drivers won’t be swerving to avoid the animals, rubbish! Do you really think the drivers won’t be desperate to avoid animal strikes? Animal strikes can not only cause the end of your event due to mechanical damage, but they can also cause accidents, potentially very large accidents, rally drivers have been seriously injured in the past due to animal strike, fortunately however the chances of animal strike has proven in the past to be quite minimal. I have been watching rallying for a very long time, the occurances of animal strike is very low, a major part of this is because of the noise of rally cars, rally cars are quite noisy, certainly louder then a normal car, animals here this, run in the opposite direction. As I said in a previous post I have been in course cars for Rally queensland in the past going through the stages immediately after the competitive cars have gone through, I’m yet to see an animal off to the side of the road dead due to being hit by a car. Drive on any of australia’s national highways and you see this all of the time. Besides it doesn’t matter if your driving 80km/h or 180km/h, if an animal jumps out at the last minute then your going to hit it and your going to kill that animal at 80km/h as well.
Endangering the beauty of the area… how? How is the rally going to damage the beauty of the area? I’ve yet to have anyone explain to me how this is going to happen. The people in Northern NSW seem to think they are the first place ever to host a rally, rallies have been in Australia for decades, the regions hosting these rallies look EXACTLY the same as they always have, rally cars come through, throw up a bit of dirt, but then the dirt settles and they look exactly the same! Yes they compact down the roads they are driving on, but these roads where already there! and usually the roads are smoother after the cars have gone through (i’m not lieing here) because the cars going through have compacted down the surface of the roads, so the roads are usually in better nick after the rallies then before, people with no experience of rallying don’t know this but its true, they will fine this out for themselfs first hand next monday morning when they inspect the tracks themselfs first hand. Everythign off to the side of the tracks is uneffected by the cars, the cars don’t drive through the scrub! They don’t drive through the trees! Thats actually the opposite of what the drivers are aiming for! they only drive on the tracks, the tracks that are there anyway, and I promise you they will actually improve the condition of the tracks for you!
The people of Imbil love their wildlife and their region just as much as the people of northern NSW, but the people of Imbil love the rally they hose, Rally Queensland, they don’t have a problem with it because they have experienced it, they know what its all about, and they know that their are only positives that comes out of the event for them.
Lets face facts here, most of the protestors consider themselfs to be quite trendy kind of people, they see motorsport as something for the riff raff, Bill as much as admited that before when he was talking about people who follow rallying needing to “grow up”, lets face facts here, for them the want to be rid of the rally all comes down to image. they think the rally is the wrong image for the area, and they are quite happy to jump on the environmental bandwagon to try and get rid of it and they have plenty of councillors willing to put up the the fight because they know it is politicaly very savvy to do that.
Well Richo, seeing as all of the protests have failed, I think these guys are trying to get their last little dig in by stirring people on the internet.
For anyone who is interested, there are ecological and social impact assessments on the rally australia website (and yes of course these were paid for by the organizer before any moron feels the need to state the obvious).
As for me, I’ll be there with bells on!
And yep the assesments are paid for by the organisers, but a) the person doing the report still has to put their name to the report, so if they want to maintain their reputation they are not just going to put up rubbish to suit the person paying, and b) who else was going to pay for it? The protestors weren’t! Too much risk the reports would say things they wheren’t interested in hearing, ie the event is fine!
100% agree Richo, Coffs Harbour has held a round of the ARC and other rally events for years and they have a population of Koalas in that area! Never heard of them getting hit by rally cars. But a few have been hit by everyday, local traffic.
As someone that grew up on the north coast, and that owns a property on one of the roads being used by the rally, i would like to suggest the environmentalist should pull in their freaking heads!
If they’d take 5 mins out from the deluded world in which they live, they’d realise that our north coast towns arent doing that well. Unless your a recent blown in from sydney, you’d know that towns like Kyogle, Murwillumbah have high rates of unemployment, and a lot of people arent that well off (blow ins excepted) so an event like this is great a pumping lots of money into our communities.
Yes, we might loose a animal or two (scrub turkeys probably, and we have 1000’s of them to spare) but weighed up against a young local family having an income for a few weeks, that loss is worth it. As for the issue of roads, our road is being used for ss stage, it is never been in better condition. there has been guys out working on it for weeks.
Hiding behind furry little critters and environmental extremism doesnt help anyone, it provides no solutions, no jobs, no income. The north coast has two industries, Farming and Tourism. Everything else supports those, and the WRC is essentially a exercise in tourism.
Arguing against the WRC is to argue against improving the health and welfare of our local communities.
Well said David.
notice how whenever the enviro’s are challenged they run away… they know their arguments are weak and without base, their just serial whingers
That was an interesting conversation and only a little bit of oppositional aggression. Well done, it makes a change from the usual debate that’s been going on but a little bit of anger creeping in at the end inspires me to ‘finish’ for the guy you say pissed off. Ok, Carbon Footprints for WRC are huge compared to professional Tennis players for example. That’s obvious yeah? How many techs in a team, how far to they fly around the world in any two years and how do they fuel their sport? So it’s not an unreasonable angle in an Environmental debate. Endangered wildlife? The opponents who do live in the area and along the route have developed, naturally, an empathy for the animals they live near. Even the Federal Government’s paper on Koala Management identifies the strong ties people make to resident animals as a measure that will contribute to the conservation of their habitat. That’s just common sense because I know that any of you following the sport would be thrilled to see a Koala close up in a tree. Now if you knew that Koala a little better, you’d have developed more than just a passing interest in its wellbeing and if someone then told you that they had decided to run a high speed rally right under that particular tree the Koala hung out in, what would you say? ‘Can you run it anywhere else, I don’t really like the idea of unnecessarily scaring this little fella…’ Of course you would. A little known fact about animals in the wild is that they can die from fright. The condition is called Stress Cardio-myopathy. Ever tried to save a bird only to find it’s dead in the box when you wake up next morning? Yes again? The Rally stages may only be run on three days but there are weeks of organising and the traffic to the area is increased beyond the norm. Helicopters fly low, drivers practice, officials start reorganising the road verges. Oh, roads. I’ll fill you in. That other guy was almost right about locals driving slow but perhaps they only do 25kph if they’ve had a joint??? Just a thought. No, normally its under 60kph because from 60 on, it’s true, you just can’t swerve for an animal and you shouldn’t because as its just been declared, this can cause fatal accidents for humans. To return to my argument, the roads are local and Homeleigh/Sargents Road is a loop road off the main road and at it’s very furthest point it is only a stone’s throw from the Border Ranges. It most definitely is a Wildlife corridor evidenced by the Pademelon Crossing. BTW, locals had, almost 18 months ago and before the Rally was known to them, erected pretty good Pademelon Crossing signs to alert locals and visitors to the nocturnal habits of these small marsupials. Council recently painted them out. Why? Anyway, the loop road is also the best vantage point to watch a very large Koala population. They really like the big open trees on the verge of the road too so you don’t have to trawl through the bush to know exactly where some hang out. On day 2, three Koalas had to be Marshalled because they were in their trees doing their thing. No-one, WRC Organisers included, want to hurt any animals. Opponents know that, deep down, so I have been surprised at some of the violent suggestions some lowlife have made in response to their concern. That hasn’t occurred on this website though…so I know you will read this knowing that I offer a genuine overview of a part of the situation surrounding the Rally Protest. Animals as a word doesn’t just mean those big furry tangible things either, it also means frog and their spawn, insects, butterflies, lizards, birds, fish etc. The environment is indeed trashed when any car deviates in any way from its designated path and that includes raising enough dust to refill the Great Desert. So the impact of the three days of racing in the small area is significant to all that is found in the small area but to those who don’t inhabit it, it’s hard to see. In a flash, you’re back in Murwillumbah’s main street, or still sitting comfortably in front of the TV. But for a local who didn’t ask the rally to intrude upon their way of life, the norm, the build up has been monstrous. The three days are upon them right now as we write and they have been living with this for almost a year. That’s the main problem for them too, that they didn’t all collectively ask for this change in their life. There is plenty of evidence to show that all the deals were done by suits with ulterior motives. The suit who used to be the Mayor of Kyogle for example, headed a Council notorious for its old-guard approach to Environmental and Heritage issues. You just have to see how they allowed Art Deco classic buildings in their main street to be pulled down to realise that they aren’t ‘with the times’. They also didn’t enact the compulsory Environmental Management Plans and so left loopholes and blaring gaps in the security of the land they managed. But that is history now and nobody ended up having a say about whether the Rally would be a good thing or not because a different bunch of suits in NSW Parliament did what one would expect and followed each other in saying AYE to Ian MacDonalds special events legislation that permitted the Rally to proceed regardless and for another 20 years. Can you imagine the impact that had on these people who were minding their own business before the Rally Organisers decided they also liked the area. We’re talking the promise of not only money here but that special allure that a high powered media event can offer. What weak willed local councillor or MP could resist that? They don’t want to be left off the bandwagon and so the Rally Suits got their way. The hoops they originally had to jump through were all for naught in the end because they didn’t end up having to get permission from the locals at all. The Environmental Reports didn’t take into account that the race was being run in Breeding Season, in September and the impact of twenty years of interruption at that time is unknown but do we really need to risk it? That’s the whole thing, many people say the economy needs it but we’re only talking about a very small sector of the society that will benefit economically from a Rally. The figures were not determined by an economic report but were based on guesstimates. If you visited this area and knew these people who don’t want the rally in this part of the region, you would know that these are the kind of people who look out for their economy and buy locally and support struggling businesses. There was a fire in a factory in Kyogle a few years back and there has been the argument that we lost something really important but I’ll tell you what we lost then. We lost a worksite that was notorious among workers as a hellhole to work in. It was a relatively backward enterprise with no social conscience and it belched pollution into the sunny little valley day and night. We all hoped the few casuals they employed there went on to healthier and better jobs. It didn’t really impact the community’s businesses and if it did, the local council should have tried harder to build a tourism industry based on what they had rather than invite a crew to come in and then fly out again with a short term gain. I’m starting to ramble, I know you can tell, but the history is long and the experience is frustrating. The Northern Rivers has more biodiversity than Kakadu. The locals didn’t vote on the WRC Rally. The area is negatively affected regardless of which angle you look at because the community has suffered untold abuse and stereotyping because of their courage to stand up for their land. I’m going to close here.
The Northern Rivers has come up a treat on the telly – and that can only help your region. And as for the actions of a few extremist protesters; I’m utterly disgusted that they would risk lives for the sake of a sporting event.
Claim ‘media beat-up’ all you like, too; I’ve spoken with people on the ground there who saw it happen. For shame.
Jenny,
Two points.
Firstly, Paragraphs. They really help!
Secondly, we had protesters out on our road yesterday putting up signs saying “save the Koala” and would argue with all the spectators, abusing them for supporting the killing of koalas.
Now i have been going to our farm for 34 years. I have never seen a koala anywhere in our valley. My dad has been going there for 50+ years, and he had never seen a koala in the valley. My uncle, who has lived on the property for 63 years… get that 63 years.. has NEVER seen a koala in the valley in ALL of that time.
so to be standing at our front gate, watching kids and families having picnics by our creek, and having a great time, and to be told by some protester whom we have never seen in the valley before that our support of the rally is killing local koalas is nothing short of a freakin joke!
If people want to protest, it might be more helpful to the cause to protest against something that could actually happen! Not knowing if the koala actually lives in the location being protested at shows its not about the koala at all, its just about stopping the rally and by hiding behind the koala is a means to do that.
and dont tell me locals didnt vote for the WRC.. I am a local, probably a damn sight more local than you.. and i fully support the WRC and the investment it brings to our corner of the world.
This group, the (Homeleigh Road and…) Sargents Road Community Koala Watch has been documenting the Koalas for the past 9 months. You will realise this loop road, the Homeleigh/Sargents Roads, were used as two stages. Most, actually, all of the Koalas documented here in several webalbum folders
http://picasaweb.google.com/k.komodo
were spotted in trees on the road verge. How many more live farther away? If you need further proof that Koalas are returning to the areas featured in the Rally program, this map
http://maps.google.com.au/maps.....5&z=13
shows the logged sightings. Enough? As for Carbon Footprints and Forestry, I’m sorry but you’ll have to try harder than that. As for Paragraphs, yes, totally agree, they are useful.
I’m sorry, but what do you mean by “try harder than that”? It wasn’t exactly hard to point out obvious holes in your statement.
Jenny, you do realise the “carbon footprint” you’re complaining about is actually helpful to forestry don’t you?
You could argue in fact, that the WRC promotes plant growth in the local area.
Protestors throwing rocks at rally cars driving at rally speeds.. don’t say it was a media beat up and didn’t happen, it happened! We had to cancel two stages because of the extreemly dangerous actions of some extremist protestors, it was completely disgraceful.
What else was disgraceful was the fact that the protestors where saying we where koala killers, but protestors had pulled down 200 meters of koala fencing on one of the stages! THEY WANTED THE KOALA’S TO GET HIT! Why? Well ofcourse that would have been good for their cause wouldn’t it, so they wanted the very thing they where protesting against to happen! I don’t know if that little fact made the media or not but the organisers where absolutely outraged by this one, more then anything else.
For the record there was environmental units whose job it was to specifically go through every single stage after the cars to check for road kill and to document this for the post rally environmental survey, no koala’s where injured from the rally. What they did report was that some protestors had thrown old road kill on to the stages after the cars to make it appear that there was more road kill then there really was… again, disgusting.
The organisers of the protest promised peaceful protests, throwing rocks at rally cars is not peaceful, its a disgrace, these protestors lost all of their credibility with their actions over the weekend, and as a result their message get lost along the way and they became branded nothing more then “ferrals”.
The amount of signs we saw from locals saying “yes rally, no ferrals” was astonishing. I also loved the bloke holding the sign saying “peak oil” and “carbon vandals” as he was leaning against his 20 year old heap of crap 4WD, as if that thing is a low pollution and efficient vehicle! Also the signs saying “WRC kills deomcracy” what a laugh, he was excercising his democratic right to protest wasn’t he! But at the same time was blocking our democratic right to participate in a totally legal rally. But i think the winner was the lady’s doing the little pinky wave from the RTA ad’s.. doesn’t she realise that 80% of the field is from overseas and has absolutely no idea what she is talking about! classic…
Also, Jenny, yes the organisers had been their for months, but you can hardly say they have been a disruption, 99% of the work they had been doing was in bringing some of the roads up to an acceptable level for the event, so if you consider improvements to your roads as “disrpution” then seriously… Also having more people in town, filling up the motels, buying meals at the pubs, newspapers at the newsagents, pies at the bakeries, fuel at the servo’s… i mean seroiusly how dare they help the local businesses!!!
Seriously.. you can turn anything into a whinge if you try hard enough, but your going to be a miserable person as a result so who really loses?
I mean once it was confirmed the rally was going ahead, rather then trying to have the event cancelled which was never going to happen, why wouldn’t you instead put your efforts into saying “right ok well i didn’t want it but its going to happen so lets work together in addressing our concerns” because mate beleive me the organisers did NOT want protests and where more then willing, desperate in fact, to work with those who had issue with the event to address their concerns, but the protestors where 100% non-receptive…
Richo, you’re a bit rich and a bit thick, in fact just like a good sauce and self-stirring!
So rather than addressing Richo’s points, you choose to insult him instead. Says a lot about your maturity.
Jenny, the quicker you and the rest of the out of touch quasi environmentalist realise you dont speak for the north coast majority, the better off we shall all be…
Next time the entrants should be supplied with baseball bats so when these pathetic,cowardly so called environmental protestors throw rocks they could be dealt with accordingly.
At present,from around the world, most environmental protestors(and animal liberationists eg PeTA) have become out of control,unreasonable and not open to discussions/negotiations and from time to time have resorted to very dangerous tactics.
These militants should dealt with only in servere terms.
Sebastien Loeb, in his blog, says it all really. Yes, the people who live in the valley live in a very quiet and peaceful place and are really cool. Perhaps those of you who believe everything you read in the papers should take a leaf out of his book and admit that it was the wrong place for a rally. Also, inciting deadly violence, like you are Slow Eddie, are breaking the law, I think.
Those idiots throwing rocks at cars and tearing down fences should be charged with attempted murder and environmental vandalism! And anyone who condones their actions should be charged as an accessory.
They’ve only ruined their cause by acting like immature spoilt brats!
I wonder if these are the ‘feral animals’ the shooters party are talking about when they say they should be allowed into national parks to perform culling operations? If so, i\’m all for it!
Afterall, a bullet is cheaper than dragging these imbeciles through the courts and keeping them in gaol (jail).
Jenny – I went to great length to address your points, I stated my position very clearly and logically and without insult, your reply was anything but and I feel there is no point even talking to you any further.
And don’t give me that “don’t believe everything you read in the paper” crap, I was there Jenny! I was part of the crew who ran the rally and exactly what I said happened DEFINETLY happened! And I haven’t even read the newspapers so I don’t know what they have been reporting anyway
…and yet, others who were in Byrril Ck Road at the time, including the Rally Winner, say it did not happen. There will always be an ‘us and them’ and a ‘you and me’ in any discussion and in relation to my cheeky and yes, cheap joke, I think we both agree I was probably just reflecting back at you your own frustration with the discourse but I do ask you, and the other reasonable contributors participating in this forum that those who incite violence and threaten murder are the ones you should be responding to and with the full strength of your disdain. That type of response is quite immoral and totally illegal and much more unacceptable, I hope, than my strong Conservationist position. Where’s the moderator?