The event first ran in 1995 (when the Gold Coast IndyCar race was held in March) and it was sponsored in the first two years by Miller Genuine Draft. The Strathfield Car Radios group picked up naming rights in 1997 and is currently contracted to continue until 2002. The idea of having a rally as a support event was raised by Glen Jones on his move to the IndyCar office from the Adelaide Grand Prix organisation.

IMG approached Melbourne based Active Display Group to organise the event - a company selected due to its long involvement with the Gold Coast IndyCar event arranging promotional activities for Philip Morris Limited sponsors of Marlboro Team Penske.

Since the very first event Rally Director David Gittus and Clerk of Course Peter Washington have developed and transformed the event from, by their own admission, a very ordinary event in 1995 to a highly regarded and challenging one today.  Whilst Washington had been a regular competitor in similar events and in Targa Tasmania he had not previously been involved in their organisation. Gittus had a background in circuit racing and event administration, but not in events of this type.

A post-mortem of the 1995 event resulted in Gittus and Washington entering several road events including the Grand Prix Rally and Three Peaks Rallye to see things from the competitors viewpoint particularly their likes and dislikes.

A review of the post-mortem, revealed some strong clues for the design of future events. 

• Firstly that everyone hates waiting around to do an event. 

• Secondly that everyone has an if only story after each event (usually "If only I had a second go at that motorkhana"), and 

• thirdly that whilst people might only be out there competing for a $50.00 trophy or even have no chance of taking home some crockery, that they are out there flogging the daylights out of their pride and joy and deserve accuracy in navigation, organisation and in event results.

All of these observations have become the backbone of an event aimed squarely at providing customer satisfaction giving them what they want. Even now after each event the organisers questionnaire every competitor and seek an open, fair assessment of their efforts addressing any issues which appear to be a common thread and ensuring that as far as possible these irritations are not present in future events.

Much of this approach stems from Active Display Groups core business in designing and manufacturing point-of-sale displays and promotional activities for the food, beverage and tobacco industries customers which are almost as demanding as the current crop of rally competitors.

The Philosophy

The philosophy is fairly simple

• Limit the number of entries (70) allowing two attempts at each driving test, with the best run counting and very little waiting around.

• Give good value for money by including big events such as a standing 1km run at Taree Airport, hillclimbs at Newcastle, Kempsey and Grafton, full-blown quarter mile drags at Willowbank, and two full days at racetracks like Queensland Raceway and Brisbanes Darlington Park Raceway. The event is not dominated by Dinky motorkhanas.

• Set tough navigation and vary it each day and year to year to keep everyone challenged. This ensures that the fastest car doesnt necessarily win, not unless it also has the best navigator.

• Have a good balance in the scoring to give equal weight to navigation and driving tests.

• Get everyone together each night for dinner, some awards and some fun (something you can only do with a limited field size).

• And then keep them all together for 3 days in a corporate box at the IndyCar circuit.

Winners in the brief history of the event have been VR Commodore Clubsport (Manson/Forde), Mazda RX-7 SP (Manson/Forde), Porsche 911 RSCS (Loypur/Tyson), Lotus Elise (Cattlin/Cattlin), Subaru WRX Sti (Muller/Foote) and most recently Porsche GT3 (Verwoert/Withers).

A wide range of high performance cars with one thing in common good navigators. Combine this with consistent, but not necessarily startling, performances in all driving tests and you have a winning combination.

Class awards based on year of manufacture and engine size ensure that even non-outright competitors have something to aim for with trophies presented to the first three placegetters in each of 10 classes.