April 2024 members communique
Your Committee met on April 24th
We discussed all things Tarmac Rally and, for this meeting, Mark Perry from Targa Australia joined the meeting for over an hour.
There was a lively discussion and Mark was quite open on the future of Targa and he will release more news as things develop.
TRCAA has been accepted as an interested party to the Tasmania Coroners inquest and will be able to provide input for the Coroner’s consideration. Your Committee believes this is one of the most important tasks for TRCAA this year. It is important to do this in a clear and concise manner so the inquest is not delayed or pushed to a later date, which would be in 2025 and further delay any return of Targa Tasmania.
Your Committee also discussed the very contentious issue of banning semi slick tyres in tarmac rally. The idea was that treaded tyres might be safer when rain affected grip on wet stages and that they would only be banned if the ban applied to all entrants so that competition between cars remained the same. Speeds on dry stages would be reduced but the risk of aquaplaning would be reduced on wet stages. It was apparent that even your Committee could not agree, and this issue is one that is complex with many aspects to consider!
As we are now coming up to 2 years since for formation of TRCAA in 2022, it is timely that a review of membership eligibility was undertaken and this was discussed in the meeting.
An issue we had to consider was our rule that only people that had competed in the last four years could join or remain as members. Given the reduced number of events available in the last few years, it was decided to change the four years to seven years as we were at risk of losing very experienced people when they fell over the four year boundary. This means that the eligibility period remains relevant to that considered when TRCAA was initially set up which is for events from 2018 to 2024, and includes the period prior to the Covid19 cancellations and MA ban on all targa style events.
In addition, as a result of TRCAA talking to competitors at events, we are seeing interest from those that want to build or buy a car and become competitors but can’t join because they have not competed yet! That defeats TRCAA’s wish to develop a mentoring program to assist new competitors. Therefore, it was decided to create a new membership level of Associate Member. TRCAA will remain a competitor focused and led group and will act solely on behalf of competitor members when dealing with event promoters and sanctioning bodies. Associate members will not have voting rights but will be able to receive TRCAA news and have input for the Committee’s consideration and progress to Competitor membership once they start competing.
Australian Tarmac Rally ran another very successful Snowy River Sprint on 4th & 5th of May and three TRCAA committee members and many TRCAA members competed. ATR delivered more than 250Klm of special stages in two days and we were back in the service park and driving away at 3:20pm on Sunday. It was a very well run event and we congratulate the ATR team on this and ATR/AASA for their continued support of the Australian Tarmac Championship. We encourage all TRCAA members to get involved with ATR events and commend their 2 events in September and October for your serious consideration.
The new TRCAA website looks great and we are working on content. If you have any recommendations for things you would like to see added please let us know. You will note we also have a new logo which presents a refreshed branding for TRCAA.
A new TRCAA sticker has been released and it includes a QR code that takes interested people to a page explaining TRCAA and linking them to the joining page so they can join as competitor members or provide details of their intentions so they can be reviewed for admittance as Associate Members.
Please support TRCAA efforts by renewing your membership and encouraging others to join.
Remember that TRCAA is:
The Voice of the Competitors