This year saw the biggest changes to the Australian Rally Championship since the introduction of Group A/PRC back in the early 1980s. Just as the departure of Holden, Ford and Nissan back then, the departure of Mitsubishi, Subaru and finally Toyota between 2005 and 2009 prompted CAMS to consider the future of the series. It had become a battle or privateers in Imprezas and Lancers, spectacular but of limited interest to manufacturers. The only glimmer of hope was the involvement of Honda into the 2WD Championship.
ARC CEO Scott Pedder lead a series of discussions throughout 2011 that resulted in a plan to turn the ARC into a 2WD championship. This year was a transition year with two championships – 2WD and 4WD with notionally equal status. But from 2013 the ARC would be 2WD only, and the new G2 Group was developed as an Australian version of FIA R3. The 4WD Subarus and Lancers could compete, but not for the championship. It risked the kind of situation that arose in the 1970s when there were cars winning ARC events that weren’t eligible for points. But the rationale was to get cars that reflected the majority of new car sales into Australia, mostly small front-wheel drive models as well as SUVs. And the clear goal was to attract manufacturers back to the series. But would it work?
There were other changes intended to make the series more spectator and media friendly. A new “arena” format event was introduced – Rally Calder, but it didn’t persist, eventually being adopted to an extent in later years by the Adelaide Hills Rally, And we think a qualifying session was introduced prior to the start following by a power stage with points for first, second and third.
It perhaps surprised no-one that on every event this year the 4WD Subarus and Lancers out-performed the 2WD cars. But they were supposedly never competing head-to-head and results were never published allowing an easy comparison. Michael Boaden from NSW with co-driver Helen Cheers, clinched the 4WD championship with one round to spare, having placed well at Calder and in the West then having won the Queensland, SA and Coffs rounds. But they won the final round in Victoria anyway!
Eli Evans had been campaigning a 2WD Honda Civic to win that championship the previous two years. He and co-driver Glen Weston swapped to a Honda Jazz this year, built to the new G2 Regulations. Pedders ran a similar car for Mark Pedder and Claire Ryan. Adrian Coppin ran a Ford Fiesta while Simon Evans started to develop a Mazda 2, but did not register for ARC points. Justin Dowel debuted a G2 VW Polo at the last round in preparation for 2013. The only other 2WD starters were Nissans (Silvia, 200SX) and Commodores. Not exactly a promising start for the 2WD category! Eli Evans blitzed the category, winning every round and taking the 2WD Championship from Mark Pedder. It also delivered Honda its second successive Manufacturers Championship.
Unsurprisingly, Neal Bates and Coral Taylor won the Classic Challenge in the RA40 Celica. The Side x Side Challenge was won by Cody Crocker and Greg Foletta. Mick Patton won the Premier League in a Subaru, Alan Roe and Ray Farrell the Privateers Cup in a Nissan 200SX, Simon and Margot Knowles won the International Cup in a Lancer Evo9 and Brett Middleton and Andrew Benefield were unchallenged for the SUV Challenge in their Forester.
To see other years of the ARC, go to the series page.
