New date, new venue, new personnel!
The Board of Propecia Rally New Zealand has unveiled a raft of changes to the country`s largest annual international sporting event.
Rally NZ Chairman Morrie Chandler outlined the changes at an executive meeting this week before making the news public in a joint release with the Hamilton City Council.

New Venue
The most significant announcement saw confirmation of Hamilton as the new host city for the November 2006 round of the World Rally Championship.

Immediately following today`s announcement from the Hamilton City Council, Chandler outlined plans for the Hamilton based event and the reasons for the move.

“The changing face of international rallying dictated the move to an extent but we see this as a fresh start and an opportunity to build further on what is already an icon event on the New Zealand sporting calendar. The roads we will be using are world class with many of them familiar to the event and spectators for many years already.”

“By moving to Hamilton we are able to focus all of our energies and promotion on one service park, something seen as vital by the visiting international teams and governing body the Federation International Automobiles (FIA). It also reduces the amount of time spent touring between stages. Hamilton is also seen as being accessible by the Auckland based followers of the event while bringing it closer to the rest of the North Island. If anything we are making it easier for the public to follow as we will remove the big miles necessary to track the event from up north in Paparoa to the south in Raglan as was the case when based in Auckland.”

“Hamilton City Council and Mayor Redman have been wonderful to work with and have shown great enthusiasm and support for what is a major international event. The Board is left in no doubt as to their commitment to the success of the event and looks forward to working closely with them over the coming months.”

New Clerk of the Course
In a number of announcements made this week at Rally headquarters, Morrie Chandler introduced Willard Martin as new Clerk of the Course.

Martin is by no means a new face to Rally NZ, having worked previously in other high profile roles with the management team of the event and is seen as a natural successor to Chandler.

Martin has already been hard at work putting together the Rally itinerary of special stages across the three days of the event that will be based around just the one service park at Mystery Creek.

"With the change of base to a single Service Park at Mystery Creek we will need to use special stages to allow us to return to service at Mystery Creek in the middle of the day. Planning for this is well underway and will include stages at Franklin and Waikato as well as returning to the Raglan district.

“At the same time the route must allow for competitors to complete a two pass reconnaissance in only two days (as per FIA regulations). To achieve this we put a lot of time into our route planning and design. We also need to consider the safety of both our competitors and spectators, while providing exciting viewing and television opportunities."

New General Manager
This week also saw the introduction of Paul Mallard as General Manager of Rally NZ, replacing Gary Upson who resigned late in 2005 to take up another role in the motor industry.

30 year old Mallard is known to the motor sport community; indeed the family has a history in rallying going back some 50 years and two generations. Grandfather Eric has served in many and varied administration and volunteer roles for over half a century while father Neil has 30 years plus under the belt in similar roles.

That combined with his 13 year career with McDonald`s where he has risen to a position of Area Manager meant he was tailor made for the role.

Mallard says he has landed his dream job.

“I`m afraid I have to give you the corny line of this is the job I have dreamed about since I was a young boy! My family has been involved in administering and volunteering at rally events since before I was born so it is in my blood. I am fortunate in that I can combine my passion and knowledge of the sport with my business background in this all too rare full time motor sport role. I can`t wait to start and carry on the work that others have started towards making Hamilton in November another hugely successful international event.”

Like Willard Martin, Mallard is no stranger to the event itself with 10 years of volunteer and administration work under his belt. During that time Mallard has taken on a number of safety related roles in Rally NZ, including that of Chief Safety Officer on the event in 2005.

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