Sunraysia Safari Rally Update: March 2017
From the Event Director:
Despite the immense disappointment of having to postpone last year’s event due to the excessive rainfall and flooding, we’ve been working non-stop to ensure that the inaugural Sunraysia Safari Rally is the very best it can be! As I’m sure you’d appreciate, designing an event of this size from a blank piece of paper is somewhat of an epic undertaking, both personally and financially, so I’m hugely grateful for the enthusiastic assistance and support from the team we’ve assembled to bring this to life. It’s certainly character building at times, but seeing everything coming together so well is very much worth the effort!
We’ve just come back from almost 3 weeks up in the Mildura, Wentworth and Pooncarie regions, finalising the competitive sections for this year’s rally, and let me tell you, they are unbelievably good! There’s just over 1450 competitive kms over the 4 days of competition, with a fantastic variety of terrain and tracks. We’ve specifically designed the course to be challenging, but not impossible, and the rally winners won’t necessarily be the fastest vehicles, but the best navigators and smartest competitors! Many competitors have asked me if the course is suitable for “conventional” 2WD\4WD Rally cars, as they are searching for a genuine long distance event to challenge them, and my answer is “Yes”! The one disclaimer I put on that is the course is comfortably traversable, provided they drive with their eyes and their brain, not their right foot! We have a class specifically for PRC spec Rally cars, and I very much look forward to seeing them tackle the event. Given the number of enquiries for these types of cars, it’s entirely possible that if the current level of interest translates into actual entries, we will look at running a dedicated course, and event, for these vehicles from 2018 onwards.
The support of the local communities and property owners continues to be nothing short of amazing. We’re very pleased to have partnered with a number of local groups who will be providing catering for the event as part of their fundraising activities. We’ve put together different options for catering packages to suit all needs, so please support the local communities by purchasing one of the packages.
Entries are now open, and indeed we’ve received our first entries for the event already! We’re doing our very best to put this event on for all of you, and clearly it won’t work without competitors. Please support the event by entering, and bringing along as many of your friends as well. We’ve built it, so now you have to come! We’ll continue to work around the clock to promote the event to new competitors and corporate partners alike, so please help us by spreading the word.
I’d like to welcome MAXTRAX vehicle recovery devices on board as an Official Equipment Supplier for the Sunraysia Safari Rally. I’m a recent convert to Maxtrax, having used them on our course surveys last year. To be honest, they are absolutely brilliant, and if I didn’t have them with me, I’d probably still be out there somewhere! I will not go anywhere without them now, and that’s the best possible endorsement I can give. They join the Rural City of Mildura, ARB 4x4 Accessories, and Cooper Tires as partners of the event, and I cannot thank them all enough for their support, and more importantly, their vision and belief in what we’re doing.
That’s about it for now, check the regs that are available on the website, and get entering! We’ll keep working away to make this rally the best we can, so please do your bit and get involved, either as a competitor, official, or corporate partner. The TV deal and our other Marketing\Promotional programs make sponsorship a very cost effective proposition, with exceptional value for money. As always, if you have any queries, please feel free to contact me directly.
TROY BENNETT
EVENT DIRECTOR
troy@tbms.net
0428 541 809
