The Kalgoorlie Desert Race will finally get its chance to shine on the national stage later this year as it hosts the final round of the 2021 BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship.
Despite running in 2020 as the Motorsport Australia Western Australia Off Road Cup and proudly hosting state level events, this year will be the first time the hugely popular event forms part of the national championship.
After what proved to be a successful event with the trial of a new format in 2020, organisers believe it gave them the perfect blueprint to hold an even better event this year.
One of those major changes was the addition of a fourth day, which allowed organisers a chance to spread out the event and accommodate as many as 100 cars and bikes.
The schedule will now see a Scrutineering party run on Thursday night at Centennial Park, Prologue and a Top 10 Shootout under lights on Friday night and the race run over Saturday and Sunday.
One of the key members behind the event organising committee, Jeremy Beck, believed the trial run of the new format proved a huge success and was excited to run with it again this year.
“We’re still a long way off from October, so it’s a bit hard to confirm the situation until closer to the date, but at the point it looks like we should have everything sorted by then,” Beck said.
“We are going to run with a similar format to what we did in 2020 because it was a huge success for both competitors and the thousands of spectators who attended the weekend.
“The Shootout under lights turned out to be quite the spectacle as we went from the slowest driver in the top 10 to the fastest and they all got to run on their own, which means they were at their best.
“It was a matter of wanting to break the event up and try something different and although it was downgraded from national level, it essentially gave us an idea for what it would be like this year.
“And It is safe to say it was extremely popular.”
Another main reason for the event’s decision to extend by a day was to increase the number of entries for when the AORC did arrive.
With the event usually attracting around 40 state crews from within the Motorsport Australia West Australian Off Road Championship, the move to 100 means there will be no shortage of space for every contender in Australia.
And while it’s still a long way away, organisers have plenty to smile about as the event enters a new era in 2021.
The Kalgoorlie Desert Race wraps up the 2021 BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship on 21-24 October.
Photo: Dakar Press Team Australia
