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Jul 28

Route Changes for Lazer Rally of the Bay

By News, Rally of the Bay 2022
Mick Harding in the Subaru WRX in wet conditions at the opening round of the NSW Rally Championship
Photo: Roy Meuronen

 

With less than three weeks before the Lazer Rally of the Bay, organisers have had to make several changes to the route.

“It’s not ideal to be making changes, but sometimes the weather can affect the condition of a road, so it makes sense to change it”, said Road Director, John McCredie.

“Runnyford Road has been impacted the most and Eurobodalla Shire Council made the decision that it was not suitable for our use. There are parts of the road that are fantastic, but then there are sections that are so wet, it’s impossible to use it for a rally. The Council are also doing road works in several sections and it’s just unsuitable for us to use.”

“We’ve extended the Buckenbowra stage by 6km. We’ve also changed the Clyde Long stage to avoid an area where there has been significant timber harvesting operations”.

“The changes mean the event is now 134km for the State teams and 124km for the Clubman competitors. We purposefully made the original route longer because we anticipated some weather events may play a part in the final route”, McCredie concluded.

With a full entry of 70 cars, there has been additional teams who wanted to enter. The revised route can now accommodate those extras and Event Manager, Nigel Bland is excited about the opportunity to allow more cars to enter the event.

“It’s fantastic to have a full field two weeks before entries close”, said Bland. “Plus, it’s great to be able to give a few more teams the opportunity to experience everything the Rally and the Eurobodalla Shire has to offer.”.

The Lazer Rally of the Bay is set to take place on Saturday the 13th of August in the forests surrounding Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast. The rally cars will be flagged away from Corrigan’s Beach Reserve in Batehaven. Lazer High Performance Lighting is the naming rights partner.

The 2022 Lazer Rally of the Bay is a round of the NSW Rally Championship and East Coast Classic Rally Series (ECCRS), and also incorporates the NSW Clubman and NSW Hyundai Series.

Jul 20

Entries rolling in fast for Lazer Rally of the Bay

By Rally of the Bay 2022

In less than a week, the Lazer Rally of the Bay has had a flood of entries with almost 50 teams signed up for the August 13th event.

“What a great response”, said Event Manager, Nigel Bland. “It’s really encouraging to see so many entries coming in so quickly.”

“It’s a great looking field, with Richie Dalton entered in his Toyota Yaris and Former Australian Rally Champion, Nathan Quinn in his Hyundai i20”, Bland continued.

“Peter Dimmock will also be running his Toyota Yaris, so we’ll have a great contingent of modern rally cars in the forest, as well as plenty of classic rally cars like the crowd favourite Mk2 Ford Escort of Sean McAloon”, Bland concluded.

Several new partners have also joined to be part of the Lazer Rally of the Bay, with Cavallino Motorsport and Simpson Race Products joining with the other partners for the 2022 edition of this classic event.

“With a full field of 70 cars expected, it’s difficult to predict a winner,” said Club President, Brett Middleton. “There are potentially a dozen drivers that could easily win, and I can’t wait to see the battle develop for the top step of the podium”.

“The local Eurobodalla community are looking forward to the positive economic impact, with significant spending generated for the Batemans Bay area”, Middleton concluded.

The Lazer Rally of the Bay is set to take place on Saturday the 13th of August in the forests surrounding Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast. The rally cars will be flagged away from Corrigan’s Beach Reserve in Batehaven. Lazer High Performance Lighting is the naming rights partner.

The 2022 Lazer Rally of the Bay is a round of the NSW Rally Championship and East Coast Classic Rally Series (ECCRS), and also incorporates the NSW Clubman and NSW Hyundai Series.

Jul 14

Entries Open for Lazer Rally of the Bay

By News, Rally of the Bay 2022, Spectators, Wheelspin
North Shore Sporting Car Club (NSSCC) has today opened entries for this year’s Lazer Rally of the Bay. The event is on 13th of August Crews will be able to commence unlimited reconnaissance immediately once their entry has been received.
NSSCC closely reviewed the event costs and this has resulted in an increase in the entry fee. For competitors who kept their entry with NSSCC from last years cancelled event, the increased fee will not apply, and the club will absorb the difference.
“We didn’t want to raise the entry fee”, said Brett Middleton, NSSCC President. “However, the cost of running the event has increased yet again, with many of our suppliers also increasing their fees. Rallysafe, Radio Network, Council road use Fees, Service Park Hire, Forestry Fees, the Medical Intervention Vehicles, and a bunch of other costs, are just some that affected us. Over 70% of our costs are fixed and non-negotiable.”
“We believe the event is still great value, but for the future sustainability of the sport, we as a club and the sport as a whole need to be realistic about event costs and make sure that it generates enough income to cover expenses and to guarantee the long-term viability of the rally”, he added.
 “Some clubs use sponsorship to reduce entry fees, but our club has a policy of only spending sponsors money on promoting their brand through promotion of the event and its rally teams .”
“Our organising committee is based predominantly in Sydney, therefore the costs of setting up and running the rally needs to be taken into consideration with things such as fuel and accommodation costs. Our team already donate hundreds of hours of time, the club can at least cover their costs. Our sports organisers are predominately an ageing crew, we need to encourage younger volunteers, we need to plan for the future sustainability of the sport,” Middleton concluded.
Event Manager, Nigel Bland, has put together a handy visual cost breakdown to help teams understand how their entry fee is distributed.
  • Fees includes all Bank, Credit Card Merchant, PayPal, NSW Rally Panel, Motorsport Australia Permit, Service Park Hire, Council Road Usage Fees, Forestry Permit and Forestry Per Car fees.
  • Operations includes Rubbish Bin Hire, Portable Toilets, Door Stickers, Rally HQ Hire, Printing Costs, RallySafe, RallySafe Support, Stationary and Postage.
  • Infrastructure includes Radio Communications, Rally HQ Equipment and Setup, Medical Intervention Vehicles and Staff, Barriers, Bunting, Signage and signage equipment.
  • Mandatory Advertising includes forest signage, newspaper advertisements and associated communications to local residents.
  • Setup and Accommodation includes the costs associated with the rally setup and pack up including accommodation, fuel, meals and other essential travel costs for senior officials who invest 50 hrs or more in volunteer time.
Jul 07

Businesses show support for Lazer Rally of the Bay

By Rally of the Bay 2022
Photo: The Shamrock Haulage Toyota Yaris AP4 – photo by Wishart Media

This year’s Lazer Rally of the Bay will feature more than 10 fantastic stages, Including the ever-popular Runnyford Road and a long 29km stage that utilises sections of the smooth and fast Clyde Ridge Road to the Northwest of Batemans Bay.

Lazer High Performance Lighting is the naming rights partner, and the rally will feature a night stage to allow teams running Lazer Lights to showcase the superiority of the Lazer product over conventional driving lights.

Rally stage names will reflect the businesses that have put their support behind the rally, with some familiar, and also new businesses getting involved. The stages will be separated into two heats with a service opportunity back in Batehaven at Corrigans Beach Reserve. The Hoosier Service Park will be a great opportunity for rally fans to get up close and personal with the teams and their machines.

Stage Sponsors include Shamrock Haulage, Shannons Insurance, Premier Pools, Prodriver Rally School, White Wolf Constructions. Premier Panel Beating, Prospeed Racing, Disc Brakes Australia (dba) Trailer Camper Australia, Techworkz Automotive and Motorsport Race Gear. Hoosier Tire Australia will take the name for the Hoosier Service Park.

Entries for the popular event are due to open next week and a long entry list is expected for this year’s approximate 150km rally. Organisers are expecting to see some big names entering including Motorsport Australia Rally Championship contender, Richie Dalton in the Shamrock Haulage Toyota Yaris AP4.

Throughout the event, stage and overall results will be fed directly from Rallysafe and be available on the Chris Sport website. https://www.chrissport.nz/index.php?c=aus

Jun 30

Route Set for Lazer Rally of the Bay

By Rally of the Bay 2022

The route for the 2022 Lazer Rally of the Bay has been finalised and crews who have entered the pace noted component of the event will soon be able to begin their reconnaissance.

The route for this year’s event has changed from previous years, with the extreme weather situation over the past 12 months affecting many of the local forest and shire roads. However, the good news is that the organising team has selected some fantastic stages in the forests surrounding Batemans Bay.

“It would have been easy to just duplicate the route we planned to use in last years cancelled event” Road Director John McCredie said. “But unfortunately, some major bridges have been washed away, so roads like the Western Distributor are closed and impassable. On top of that, the Ridge Road Stage has been affected by the major road work construction on the edge of town”.

“So, we had to get creative and use a few interesting Liaison sections to get access to the best roads. Which means we still get to use Ridge Road and Dog Trap Road on the Eastern Side of the Princes Highway, just to the west of Batehaven. We’ve just shortened it a little and reversed what we had planned for last year and this also allows us to keep a Spectator Point just 5 minutes from town”.

“Other roads are ones we’ve used before, including Runnyford Road and a 29km stage that starts in The Western Distributor and then uses Wallaby Road, Clyde Ridge Road and into Drury’s Road. We’ll also be using Bark Shed Road, and Big Bit Road, which haven’t been used for a while, but have been traditional Rally of the Bay stages in previous years”, McCredie concluded.

The event will use six stages, five of which will be repeated to provide a total of 11 stages. The Clubman component of the rally will consist of the first 10 stages. The main event will be approximately 150km with an announcement of stage partners due to be made next week.

The Lazer Rally of the Bay is set to take place on Saturday the 13th of August in the forests surrounding Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast. The rally cars will be flagged away from Corrigan’s Beach Reserve in Batehaven. Lazer High Performance Lighting are the naming rights partner.

Photo: Roy Meuronen

Jun 20

Lazer Rally of the Bay – A Battle of Youth and Experience

By Rally of the Bay 2022

EVENT DATE: 13th August 2022

Round 4 of the NSW Rally Championship is the Lazer Rally of the Bay, and it is shaping up to be a battle between youth and experience.

19-year-old Riley Walters will start the event in his Subaru WRX, with an 8-point lead in the NSW Rally Championship. Walters, who finished 2nd on the podium at last weekend’s Bega Valley Rally, is looking forward to the Batemans Bay based competition.

“When we started the season, we really didn’t come into it wanting or even expecting to be leading the Championship”, Walters said.

“This is the first time that I’ve competed in the NSW Rally Championship and after the challenges of the last two years getting the car right and finally being able to do some rallies post-Covid, I’m just having an absolute blast”

“There are so many talented drivers that we’re up against, and if this season isn’t our year, I still have plenty of time to try and win the series in the future. My co-driver Andrew Crowley has been a massive support, helping me to improve and find our rhythm, so it’s already been a winning year for me.

“The car still has a lot of improvements that we can make, but it’s very reliable, so we don’t want to push our luck with any changes at this stage of the Championship”, Walters concluded.

Walters and Crowley’s main rival will be Tony Sullens and co-driver Kaylie Newell, who won the Bega Valley Rally, sit 2nd in the NSW Championship standings, and are the current State Champions. Sullens has far more experience than his younger competitor and will be hoping that this experience will give him the edge at the Lazer Rally of the Bay.

There are many other contenders, including Tim Wilkins and Jim Gleeson in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9. Wilkins has had a string of bad luck at the last two Championship events, exiting both Round 2 and Round 3, whilst in the lead.

Event Manager, Nigel Bland is preparing for a big field on the 13th of August 2022 and expects the event to attract teams from all over Australia.

“We’re expecting a bumper entry”, Bland said. “The Lazer Rally of the Bay is a popular event and because it’s the first pace-noted rally since the beginning of the season, we know there are teams itching to get into the forests on pace-notes.”

“Once again, we’ll be basing our rally headquarters in the heart of Batemans Bay at the Batemans Bay Marina Resort, with our Service Park at Corrigan’s Beach Reserve in Batehaven”, Bland continued.

“Teams will come from mainly NSW, but I’m expecting to see at least a few Victorian and also a few Queensland based teams. As far as the roads go, we’ve been busy selecting the best roads in the area, and you can look forward to seeing Clyde Ridge Road, Wallaby Road, The Old Highway, Bark Shed Road, and a few other popular stages used”, Bland concluded.

The 2022 Lazer Rally of the Bay is a round of the NSW Rally Championship and East Coast Classic Rally Series (ECCRS), plus also incorporates the NSW Clubman and NSW Hyundai Series.

Lazer High Performance Lighting is the rally’s naming rights partner.

Photo: Riley Walters and Andrew Crowley at the Bega Valley Rally. Photo By Roy Meuronen

Nov 26

Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint Partners Announced

By Tarmac Rallysprint, Wheelspin

The immensely popular Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint Series held over summer at the Sydney Dragway announces a new line up of Event Partners as the Rallysprint gets set to kick off on December 16.

On announcing the partner line up, Event Director and NSSCC President, Brett Middleton, said he was ecstatic that such a diverse range of business are getting behind the event.

“It’s really great to have these partners committing to our series”, Middleton said. “A lot of hard work goes into making the event happen and it is largely run by volunteers who commit their own time to making the event a success. We have a great line up of partners for this season of the Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint, with our five Major Partners all re-committing for 2021/22”.

Whiteline continues as the Naming Rights Partner, with GFB, Shannons Insurance, Premier Pools and Disc Brakes Australia all again signing up as Major Partners.

Other Series Partners include Prospeed Racing, Haltech, Hyundai N Performance, Lazer Lights, TME Motorsport, SRT Design and Construction, DashSport, Evolution Racing Spares, BG of Australia, AGI Roll Cages and Motorsport Race Gear.

You can meet the Partners at any one of the four rounds. The dates for the series are:

Round 1 – 16th of December, 2021
Round 2 – 6th of January, 2022
Round 3 – 10th February, 2022
Round 4 – 10th March 2022

Nov 02

Lazer lights the way for Rally of the Bay

By Rally of the Bay 2021, Rally of the Bay 2022, Wheelspin

Andrew Penny and Rhys Llewellyn at the 2020 event. Photo: Roy Meuronen

The 2022 Rally of the Bay received a huge boost this week with the announcement that Lazer High Performance Lighting will be the events naming rights partner.

Announcing the new multi-year deal, Club President, Brett Middleton is thrilled with the new partnership and is expecting a big field for the event, now scheduled for a slightly later date of August 13. The event will be known as the ‘Lazer Rally of the Bay’.

“It’s great news”, said Middleton. “We’ve been busy planning for the 2022 event in the background and the new deal with Lazer Lamps is the perfect partnership. Lazer Lamps produce the best lighting solutions in the world for rally cars and also for production cars, so to have them as our naming rights partner is just fantastic.”

Kirk Marks is Lazer High Performance Lighting’s Regional Manager, and he was also extremely delighted with the new partnership.

“We are excited to be able to partner with the Rally of the Bay and to contribute to the ongoing success of the event run by the North Shore Sporting Car Club in Batemans Bay for over 20 years. Lazer Lamps have a competition pedigree starting over a decade ago, providing high performance lighting solutions for World Rally Championship Teams and now providing the same support for rally competitors in Australia”, Marks Said.

“We know the event is a competitor favourite and I can’t wait to be part of the action in August next year”, Marks Concluded.

Event Manager, Nigel Bland is preparing for a big field on the 13th of August 2022 and expects the event to attract teams from all over Australia.

“We are really looking forward to the 13th of August next year”, said Bland. “We have already started the planning process and are busy looking into ways to make the event even better than previous years.”

“Once again, we’ll be a Round of the NSW Rally Championship, but we expect that several teams in the Australian Rally Championship will want to include the Lazer Rally of the Bay in their schedules. We know this event is extremely popular and we expect there’ll be crews from interstate heading to Batemans Bay to experience the rally and everything the Eurobodalla Shire has to offer”, Bland continued.

The Lazer Rally of the Bay will be based out of Batemans Bay in the Eurobodalla Shire and will run on the 13th of August 2022. The event will be a round of the NSW Rally Championship, NSW Clubman Series, East Coast Classic Rally Series (2WD and 4WD) as well as a round of the Hyundai Rally Series.

Oct 25

Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint Season Changes

By Rallysprint, Tarmac Rallysprint, Wheelspin

The immensely popular Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint Series held over summer at Sydney Dragway has been forced to change the dates for the 2021/22 season. Construction delays at the Dragway and Speedway complex has led the organising committee to remove the November round and add a round on January 6th.

The Event Director and NSSCC President, Brett Middleton, said he didn’t want to shorten the series because he knows competitors are itching to get behind the wheel and compete.

“What a year it’s been”, Middleton said. “With everything that’s occurred with lockdowns, and very little motorsport happening, we knew the Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint was going to be popular. We have over 100 entries already for round one, and more are still coming in.”

“We didn’t want to change the dates, but we also didn’t want to shorten the course like we had to last season. So by removing November and adding the 6th of January, it means we still have four rounds and we can use the new longer course we planned.”

“The major construction works at the Dragway Complex are running behind schedule and the bitumen surfacing in the new car park area may not be ready, so it made sense to re-arrange the dates and give competitors the opportunity to compete on a longer course.”, Middleton concluded.

The new dates for the series are:

  • Round 1 – 16th of December, 2021
  • Round 2 – 6th of January, 2022
  • Round 3 – 10th February, 2022
  • Round 4 – 10th March 2022
Sep 15

Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint Season Shortened to Four Rounds

By Tarmac Rallysprint
Photo by Roy Meuronen

The immensely popular Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint Series held over summer at the Sydney Dragway complex has been forced to shorten the 2021/22 season, with NSSCC President and Event Manager, Brett Middleton, citing several reasons for the decision.

“It’ll come as no surprise to anyone that the ongoing government-imposed restrictions are impacting events and that the end date for lockdown is still unclear. With just a month to go before the first round, we need to ensure we have a clearer picture before opening entries and collecting entry fees”, Middleton said.

“There is also major works still going on at the Dragway Complex itself and the bitumen surfacing in some areas that we plan to use for the Rallysprint are not 100% complete. Obviously, the Sydney wide restrictions are having effects on the timelines for the Sydney Speedway construction, so we also need to be assured that we’ll have a suitable course to use”, Middleton went on to say.

Sydney Dragway is currently closed and there has been no announcement on when operations will re-commence or what requirements will be in place for entry to the facility once open again.

With all these factors in play, NSSCC has decided to reduce the series from five rounds to four, with round one set to commence on Thursday the 18th of November.

“So many events have been cancelled this year”, Middleton continued. “And we know people are really looking forward to doing some motorsport this year. We’d love to be running the first event next month as planned, but it just wasn’t possible”.

“On the bright side, we have a great new course planned and a few new features that we know competitors are going to love”, Middleton concluded.

Whiteline has once again put their support behind the event and has now been the event’s naming rights partner for over six years. In addition to Whiteline, many of last seasons partners have also indicated they want to be involved again.

The event will continue its tradition of striving to be the best event in Sydney for grass roots motorsport. NSSCC encourages all competitors, regardless of discipline, who have never tried a tarmac Rallysprint, to enter something new and experience the excitement of driving a road style course.

The Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint will again feature discounted entry fees for juniors over the age of 14, and like in previous seasons, each event will feature comprehensive video media coverage. Entries are due to open in October.

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