The Extreme Rallycross Championship has been forced to condense its calendar to five events due to a lack of entries and the withdrawal of Sydney Motorsport Park.
Entries for the upcoming Calder Park round, slated September 25-26, had increased but not to the extent to make the event financially viable, forcing the cancellation.
“We are very disappointed with the level of support we have received from competitors,” said championship organiser David Ridden.
“After the success of Round 1 and the positive feedback we have had from all the competitors that competed at Lakeside, there where a lot of drivers and teams telling us they were going to enter Round 2, but that hasn’t happened and we can not run an event with only 20 cars.”
The championship had been scheduled to host two rounds at Sydney Motorsport Park but the circuit’s board has since decided to move away from hosting rallycross events.
“We’re particularly disappointed with the decision by Glenn Matthews and his board at Sydney Motorsport Park have made, with Glenn now telling us with an email that the board of Sydney Motorsport Park have decided they no longer want to be involved in Rallycross,” added Ridden.
“Our team has spent many hours working with Glenn and his team on track designs and the commercial aspects of running the two events there and to get just an email telling us of their decision after all that work is very unprofessional.”
A spokesperson on behalf of Sydney Motorsport Park has since told Speedcafe.com that hosting a rallycross event at the venue was not feasible and the championship did not have a confirmed booking.
“We were in discussions with them and we are supportive of all forms of motorsport and we wanted to accommodate them as we could,” said a spokesperson from the circuit.
“We sat down with them and went through several design options with the track but at the end of the day it wasn’t feasible from a cost point of view to build the track they need, plus our timetable is extremely busy.
“Unfortunately they advertised it without a confirmed booking.”
As a result of the changes, the Extreme Rallycross Championship will return to action at Lakeside Raceway for the second round from November 13-14 before its scheduled visit to Adelaide’s Wayville Showgrounds.
Two further rounds at unconfirmed locations in January and February also feature on the revised calendar.
Amid the changes Ridden is determined to continue his plan to bring rallycross back to Australia but warned the sport will disappear if it fails to attract support.
“Rallycross is here and we have proven we can run outstanding events and we are committed to it, but if Australian competitors don’t get involved, there will be no National Rallycross Championship in Australia and no commercial support for it, ” said Ridden.
“We know there are competitors worried about damaging to their cars in Rallycross and this talk needs to stop as we have rules in place and Rallycross in Australia is not a contact sport.”
Revised Sidchrome Extreme Rallycross Championship Calendar
R2 – November 13 -14 Lakeside Park, Brisbane
R3 – December 11-12 Wayville Show Grounds, Adelaide
R4 – January 15 -16, location TBA
R5 – February 19 – 20 NSW, location TBA
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