RallySport Magazine March 2017

Garry Connelly co-driving for
Japan’s Kenjiro Shinozuka in a
factory Mitsubishi Lancer in the
1976 Southern Cross Rally.
This caused a lot of dissent from
officials and competitors, the best
example being the change to A to
A timing. I had so many people
(some very senior in the sport, and
in CAMS at the time as well) tell me:
“You do it the traditional Aussie way
and make the FIA understand that’s
how it is”.
Well, you can imagine how that
would have worked!
Did the FIA (or FISA, as it was back
then) and the factory teams accept Australia
from the outset?
Unquestionably yes! And the reason
for that was we said “Look – tell us what
you want out of a WRC round – what
are all the things that you would want
us to do, so that when we demonstrate
them to you at our 1988 candidate
event, you will be unable to say ‘no’ to
us coming into the WRC the next year,
and not having to do the customary
two year candidature”.
Then we “reverse-engineered”
everything the FISA (FIA) and the teams
wanted and we delivered.
So, it was virtually impossible, even
considering the politics (which were
significant), for them not to put us in
for 1989.
Rally Australia was always a trend-setter
in the WRC, from clover-leaf routes, to super
special stages and eye-in-the-sky safety
methods. As a result you won many ‘Rally of
the Year’ awards. Was it always a brief for
the event to keep pushing the envelope and
staying ahead of other rallies?
“Being so far from
Europe, we had to make
it impossible for them to
say ‘no’ to us being in the
championship.”
Yes! We were passionate about
being at the top of the game, especially
because, being so far from Europe,
we had to make it impossible for
them to say “no” to us being in the
championship.
Perhaps the event’s most memorable
feature was the Langley Park Super Special
Stage. Whose idea was this, and how difficult
was it to implement, from idea to reality?
In the beginning we said “We have to
take rallying to the people, because it is
not as popular here as in Europe”. So
even for our candidate event we had
stages close to Perth city.
Then our advertising agency (303
Advertising) came up with the idea
of doing something right in the city –
that resulted in the Northbridge stage
around the restaurant district. But we
realised that this was not sustainable.
I recall I was in Adelaide for the
Grand Prix with Shane Crockett (our
CEO) and one morning I drew up this
diagram of the Langley Park Super
Special on the kitchen table of Mal
Hemmerling’s home (Mal was the
AGP CEO at the time, and also on the
RA Board), showed it to Mal and
Shane, who said “Okay, it’s crazy,
but let’s do it!”.
Thanks to Shane’s amazing
ability to talk governments and
authorities into just about anything,
and the logistical skills of Rob Van
Leeuwen (our Ops Manager), it
happened – sure with a lot of effort,
but it worked and it worked within
budget.
** See our Langley Park feature
on page 28 of this issue.
As the key figure behind the event, was it
a surprise when the WA Government withdrew
their funding after 2006, which saw the end
of Rally Australia in Perth?
Not at all. I could see it coming
from around early 2000, when there
was a change in the structure and
management of Tourism WA and
EventsCorp, and especially late 2001
when I took the decision to try to exit
the event following its 2002 edition.
There was pressure from certain
tourism operators, especially those
who did not benefit from the rally,
for the government to spend more
money on direct advertising rather than
events.
It was a shame really, because the
support we had from the various
Premiers, to the Ministers and the
heads of Tourism and EventsCorp in
the years prior was outstanding.
People like former Premiers Carmen
Lawrence and Richard Court, and
Ministers Graham Edwards and
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