A massive entry of more than 150 cars will be taking part in the inaugural Rally Calder presented by ECB, Melbourne’s Festival of Speed at Calder Park Raceway on 1-4 March.
The massive entry will mean spectators coming to the event over the weekend will be spoiled for action across every square metre of the motor sport complex with the opening round of the Bosch Australian Rally Championship, the CAMS Australian Tarmac Rally Championship, The Australian Classic Rally Challenge, the Side by Side Rally Challenge and the Just Car Insurance ARC Forum Battle.
CEO of the Bosch ARC Scott Pedder said he was overwhelmed with the response to the inaugural Rally Calder and the fact that it will provide a weekend of action packed and fast paced motor sport entertainment for the thousands of fans who will be flocking to Calder for the all new event.
“When we came up with the formula for Rally Calder there was some trepidation heading into pretty uncharted territory hoping that competitors and spectators would embrace the concept so it is really encouraging that we have had this response,” said Scott.
“With this many entries spectators will be given a feast of action on gravel, tarmac and a mixture of the two,” said Scott Pedder.
The entry for the Bosch ARC is headed by the all new Honda Jazz G2s driven by Mark Pedder and Eli Evans in what will be the transition year as the Championship moves to a two wheel drive only formula in 2013.
The exciting new Hondas recently arrived from JAS in Italy where they were built specifically for the Bosch Australian Rally Championship.
Along with the two headlining Honda G2 cars there is a plethora of four wheel drive turbos, in what is the last season they will be able to compete for an Australian Rally Championship. The four wheel drive turbos are headed by Steven Shepheard in an Evo X Lancer and Michael Boaden in an Evo 9 model along with WA young gun Tom Wilde in an Evo X who could be the surprise package as he steps up to outright contention with the Pedders Suspension Rally Team.
Former front runner and past Targa Tasmania winner Tony Sullens is making a comeback to the Bosch ARC in his Subaru Impreza WRX and is sure to be a potential threat to the to order given his past form and speed.
Australian actor and funny man Shane Jacobson will be making his rally debut in the Kumho Motorsports Mitsubishi Lancer Evo with Queensland co-driver Luke Page.
Two interesting machines in the field include a $500,000 V12 Aston Martin Vantage and a six-litre Holden Commodore V8 both of which are sure to be crowd pleasers.
Along with the modern cars Rally Calder is the opening round of the Australian Classic Rally Challenge with four times Australian champion and Toyota works driver Neal Bates debuting his new replica TTE twin cam Celica which will fight it out with Jeff David’s Porsche, Grant Walker’s BDA Ford Escort RS1800 and David Thompson’s Triumph TR8.
“The Classic’s might be ‘old’ cars but they bring memories and great sounds with some spectacular action and are sure to be a crowd favourite at Rally Calder, especially with Neal Bates making a comeback,” said Scott Pedder.
A field of exciting Lamborghinis, Porsches, Nissan GTRs, Mazda RX7s, Evo Lancers, a Renault Megane RS250 Cup and even an exotic ex WRC Ford RS 200 Group B car will fight out the opening round of the CAMS Australian Tarmac Rally Championship in a separate event that will run parallel across the weekend providing even more spectator excitement.
Off the rally tracks and tarmac roads of Calder the new Australian Side by Side rally Challenge will take place on a mixture of dirt tracks and impossible climbs and drops around the Calder complex with two of Australia’s great rally drivers of the past heading the field of Polaris and CanAm Side by Sides.
Three times Australian Rally Champ Cody Crocker will head up the Polaris factory rally effort battling the CanAm contingent led by former Australian WRC driver Michael Guest.
“The Side by Side Rally Challenge is going to be huge and it will be a fantastic to see these fantastic machines screaming around the course we have planned for them at Calder,” said Scott.
The massive field of cars in the Just Car Insurance ARC Club Forum Battle is still being finalised with a field of more than 80 modified and performance cars set to do battle across six events including a Time Attack, Gymkhana, Quarter Mile Sprint and a tarmac rally stage as well as a Show And Shine and Club support to determine Australia’s Best Club Forum.
The event is set to bring rallying to the city allowing motor sport fans to catch all the action in a single venue just 23 km by freeway from the Melbourne CBD.
Rally Calder presented by ECB will be flagged away in a special ceremonial start at Caroline Springs Shopping Square on Thursday 1st March at 7.00pm with a range of festivities and pre-event activities in the CS Square/WestWaters Hotel Caroline Springs precinct from 5pm.
The Bosch ARC and Tarmac Championship cars will be in action from 3pm on Friday afternoon, with competition from 8am to around 9.30pm on Saturday and from 8am till around 4pm on Sunday with the podium celebrations straight after this.
Tickets can be pre-purchased from Foxtix and are also available at the gate at Rally Calder