New start set for Rally of Canberra
Despite the opening day of the 2024 Rally of Canberra cancelled due to heavy rain, the Australian Rally Championship will fire up tomorrow.
After a massive 37.4mm of heavy rain lashed the nation’s capital, Rally of Canberra organisers made the tough call to cancel the entirety of Saturday’s schedule.
Road conditions in the Tidbinbilla Ranges have deteriorated due to heavy rainfall, meaning the 2024 Australian Rally Championship will now launch on Sunday in the Kowen Forest region.
On Saturday afternoon the Rally’s Clerk of Course, Adrian Dudok, completed an inspection of the roads in the Kowen Forest and has given the go ahead for competition on Sunday subject to further rain falling.
In the build up to this weekend, Saturday’s schedule had been amended due to the call to cancel both runs through the Blue Range stage.
But following additional road inspections on Saturday morning and input from various event officials and competitors, the Clerk of Course made the decision to cancel Saturday’s running.
A key consideration was advice that a section of the Oakey Camp stage (SS1 & SS4) was deemed impassable for 2 wheel drive vehicles, driven by some competitors, event volunteers, and emergency vehicles.
It has been claimed the decision to cancel Saturday’s stages was supported by the majority of competitors who are now preparing for the new Sunday schedule.
Rally of Canberra organisers released the following statement on the situation.
“Following careful consideration with our dedicated officiating team, due to the amount of water that has fallen and is continuing to fall, the decision has reluctantly been made to cancel Saturday’s stages of the 2024 Techworkz Automotive Rally of Canberra.
At the forefront of the decision is our team on the ground out in the weather and their safety, along with the safety of all teams and drivers, is paramount.
Consultation with our crews & drivers in a briefing this morning showed support for the cancellation of stages, as they themselves do not want to damage vehicles unnecessarily and potentially put the volunteers and rescue teams in danger as well.
We acknowledge that there are crews that have travelled from as far as WA & Tasmania, and we want it to be known that we have tried everything we possibly can to get today off the ground, however the conditions have not relented and we do not want to compromise our volunteer team, as well as competitors.
On behalf of Clerk of Course Adrian Dudok, we would like to thank everyone for their understanding and cooperation during this time. At the end of the day we can’t control the weather and that has been our downfall today.
We fully expect that we can run all stages on Sunday in the Kowen Forest, and our assessment crews will be out later this afternoon to assess whether that is possible.
Once again we would like to thank all of our volunteers who were out at 6am this morning and were all willing to come back out, should we have proceeded with this afternoon’s running.”
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