Quote Originally Posted by Zeakiwi View Post
A few points. The current Australian wrc round is held at Coffs Harbour which is 600? kilometres north of Sydney.
NZ has lost some of the classic gravel road stages used in past wrc years, the roads have been tar sealed.
I suspect the 2 day 'candidate' event planned for NZ this year is likely to have a moderate amount of touring distance between the special stages. A three day event would likely have a lengthy touring section (by comparison to most current wrc events) at some point in order to get the quality stages and stage distance and possibly require a remote refuel, service, tyre change. The candidate event is Tauranga based which has not been used since 1979 (overnight rest stop) in a wrc (previously mostly Rotorua was used in the area)
I hope the nz motorsport officials do some more spectator education before the (and if the wrc returns) because the wrc is likely to attract new NZ spectators to the stages who have not rally spectated before. (Spectator incidents in NZ for wrc before - McRae hitting the spectator, Auriol near miss with spectator walking across the road in rain storm etc)
Approximate distances from Tauranga to Rotorua 55km, Coromandel 70km, Tokaroa 80km, Raglan 120km, Motu 140km. each of those areas has a number of special stage type roads available. The hub for the Raglan stages could be a lot closer to Hamilton than out on the coast and would reduce quite a bit of traveling. We were spoilt for road choice when we ran three days out of Rotorua. Tauranga is a perfect base for a NZ WRC event.