QUIT FOREST RALLY PROMISES ACTION A PLENTY ON FOUR WHEELS AS WELL AS ON TWO

Australia's leading off road enduro bike riders, quad-bike exponents and the newly announced Side by Side ATV challenge competitors will do battle over a challenging enduro course as part of the upcoming Quit Forest Rally at Busselton in WA on 31 March-1April, which will also be round two of this year's Bosch Australian Rally Championship.

While the car competitors in the Bosch ARC will lead the Quit Forest rally away, the impressive array of Side by Sides, enduro bikes and quads will attract plenty of attention from fans and some of the top riders and drivers in the category from all over Australia.

The motos, quads and Side by Sides will cover close to 200 kilometres over two days using much of the rally route along with some select detours from the car event to spice up the challenge for the off road machines.

According to Ross Tapper, clerk of course for the Quit Forest Rally, the Moto and Side by Side section of the event will present a wide variety of challenges for the bikes, quads and side by sides with all of the back up and safety that comes with a round of the Bosch ARC.

"It is fair to say that the Quit Forest Rally has quickly established itself as one of the major events on the Australian Moto calendar and it is seen as a good warm up for the national enduro calendar and certainly one of the most challenging," said Tapper.

"The inclusion of the Side by Sides gives the event even greater 'critical mass' ensuring our viability but more importantly competitors will have an array of conditions and challenges over the rally route.

"Spectators will also have plenty of action from the Bosch ARC cars, the Classics and the new SUV category as well as the motos, quads and side by sides," Tapper added.

Headlining the moto entry will be four-time winner and reigning Finke Desert Race champ, KTM works enduro rider Ben Grabham, along with his his brother Husaberg works rider Damien Grabham who is the defending Quit Forest Rally moto champ.

The pair will headline a huge Moto category in the rally while the quad bikes and the newly added Side by Side categories are set to have equally impressive entries.

Three-times Australian Rally Champ Cody Crocker will be piloting the works backed Polaris RZR in the Side by Side Challenge at Quit Forest Rally making a comeback to an event he has won in the past with Subaru. Fighting it out with him and the many privateer Side by Side competitors will be former WRC campaigner Michael Guest who is the factory driver for CanAm.

"The fact that two of Australia's best moto enduro riders are travelling all the way from Bathurst in NSW to tackle the Quit Forest Rally says something about what we have achieved with the event over the past few years," said Ross Tapper.

"Above all we have set out to make it a fun event and one that everyone can enjoy with 216 kilometres of competitive stages with many of the stages in clear felled forests which will mean spectators will be able to see the cars, bikes, quads and side by sides for vast distances," he said.

The rally will again kick off on the evening of Friday 30 March with the hugely popular Busselton Toyota Super Special Stage on the foreshore in Busselton before hitting the forests around Nannup, 100km inland on Saturday and Sunday.

The Quit Forest Rally is now one of the major events each year for WA's popular South Western region and is sure to draw huge crowds to the Busselton stage and in the forests across the weekend.

The video above is from a similar event at the Scouts Rally in SA

The following is a statement directly from the CAMS website after the recent controversy over top Buggy teams not attending the AROC round that has been appointed on the same weekend that Finke is run.

CAMS intends to work on re-instatement of the Finke Desert Race to the Australian Off Road Championship as quickly as possible.

The race is currently not part of the Australian Off Road Championship in 2012.

David Morgan, CAMS CEO, says he is disappointed that the Organisers of the Finke Desert Race chose not to be part of the Championship, but would like to see it return to the Championship in the near future.

“The Finke is one of the iconic Australian races,” said Mr Morgan. “It is a marquee event on the Australian Off Road Racing calendar, and we are working to have it back in the championship.”

Organisers for the race withdrew their Expression of Interest to be included as part of the 2012 Championship late in 2011, and subsequently declined to attend a meeting in December with CAMS to negotiate a resolution to their key issues.

Organisers of the Sea Lake Mallee Rally in Victoria submitted an Expression of Interest for the Australian Off Road Championship in January 2012, – which was accepted.

The Sea Lake event is the second longest-running event of its type in Australia, and returns to the Championship after an eleven-year absence to open the series on 8-10 June, 2012.

“The Sea Lake event has traditionally been held on the June long weekend since 1973,” said Mr Morgan.

“This is the weekend it is always held, and it was the only event that the Championship had a submission for on that weekend for 2012.

“We welcome Sea Lake back to the Championship as it, too, is a special race in Australian Off Road Racing.”

Holden versus Ford, Carlton vs Collingwood, Wallabies vs All Blacks. Down Under, there are plenty of great sporting rivalries. In world of Powersports, Polaris and BRP have fought in North America for over 50 years. An agreement has now been made with the Australian Rally

Championship to bring the battle to Australia with the first of four rounds of the Australian Side by Side Challenge to be held at Calder Park in March 2-4 2012.

Since the 1960's the snowmobiles of both premium brands have been raced against each other. In the 1980's came ATVs (quad bikes), and most recently Side by Side (SxS) vehicles. Polaris are from Minnesota, USA, and across their northern border sits Canadian arch rival, BRP,

makers Can-Am ATVs and SxS.

Since the introduction of the Polaris RZR in 2008, the sport of SxS Racing has exploded in North America, with tens of thousands of Polaris SxS now sold each year. In Australia Polaris RZR owners have been welcomed at events all over the country, from the Outback races such

as Finke Desert Race and Cliffhanger, to KharnaCross and plenty of other events endorsed by CAMS or the Cross Country Drivers Association, not to forget the fact that we had SxS race at our very own 2011 Thumb Pump 300 ATV Festival under Motorcycling Australia.

"One of the key things the ARC SxS Racing will deliver is a CAMS nationally recognised cage spec. From 2012 a Polaris RZR owner will be able to enter a host of different CAMS events with the one spec vehicle" said Neil Anderson, Polaris National Marketing Manager. The CAMS spec cage should then of course be eligible for MA and CCDA events also.

The only permitted vehicles in the Rally Australia events will be the Polaris RZR XP and the Can-Am Commander. Neil also pointed out that this will effectively be a stock class, basically everything is standard apart from the necessary safety changes such as approved racing cage and harnesses. "We are very keen that this not become cheque book racing. As a result, there will be no engine or transmission modifications allowed. Even the alloy wheels must be stock."

Rounds will be held on the following dates

Mar 2-4 Rally Calder Melbourne VIC

Mar 31-April 1 Quit Forest Rally Busselton WA

May 26-27 International Rally Sunshine Coast QLD

Oct 13-14 Coffs Coast Forest Rally NSW

Now is the time to start getting a cage made if you want to compete at the first round, competitors are free to choose their own manufacturer or make it themselves, so long as it complies with CAMS Schedule J.

Sporting and Technical regulations are published at

www.rally.com.au (Competitors – Regulation)

http://www.rally.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&

http://www.rally.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86&Itemid=100

Supplementary Regulations and Entry information is also

at www.rally.com.au (Events – Rally Calder – Rally Calder

Event Information – Competitor Information)

http://www.rally.com.au/index.php?option=com_c

ontent&view=article&id=1316%3Acompetit

or-information-australian-side-x-side-rallychallenge&

http://www.rally.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1316%3Acompetitor-information-australian-side-x-side-rallychallenge&catid=79&Itemid=199

View the Rally Calder Video

Luke Gaisford has won the 2011 Australian ATV MX Nationals Pro Title, this year hosted by the Queensland Quad Riders Association at the Coolum Pines MX track on the Sunshine Coast,  with consistent placings in all 5 motos across the weekend, 2 seconds and 2 thirds and 1 win being enough to take this years title with 109 points on his Honda. Defening title holder, Ryan Lancaster looked in form to retain his 2010 title for the factory KTM team with a strong win in Moto 1 but, a mechanincal issue on the start gate for Moto 2 saw him miss that race and while he won the final 3 motos convincingly it was not enough to retain the title having to settle for 2nd place overall with 100 points, 3rd and 4th place getters Luke Nixon and Blake Waldmann also figured in the top 3 in several motos with the only other rider to take higher than a 4th place in any pro moto being Luke Beechey on his factory Polaris.

Photographs Courtesy of Randall Kilner -Dirtcomp Magazine