For the first two years of its existence, the Rainbow Desert Enduro has had to endure wet weekends.
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This has made things muddy for competitors and wet for spectators, but in spite of this each event has been a resounding success.
Hindmarsh Shire Council is looking to build on this, after securing a state government grant. On Friday, Member for Western Victoria, Jaala Pulford announced the 2019 event would receive money under the Regional Events Fund.
Community development co-ordinator Simon Landrigan said they wanted to spread the news as far as possible.
"It will help us to promote the event a little sooner in the year," he said.
"We want more competitors and spectators in the area, basically any motorsport fans from across Victoria and easter South Australia," he said.
The Desert Enduro is the final round of the Australian Off Road Championship, and this year will be held between August 9 and 11. Competitors complete seven laps of the 78km Enduro course, situated between Rainbow and Big Desert. The first two events are held in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
The funding announcement follows Rainbow holding the Rainbow Rises 240 event over the Labor Day long weekend, the first round of the state off road championships. Mr Landrigan said it was a good opportunity for the town to maximise it's potential as an off-road venue.
"It was a smaller scale event - it's only an eight kilometre track - and we'd be hoping to maintain that next year," he said.
"That presented different challenges, it got a little bit dusty, so it's either too wet or too dry.
"Let's hope this year we have a dry weekend in August. Two weekends in a row with considerable rain before and during the weekend has definitely made things a bit more challenging. Third time lucky hopefully."
Mr Landrigan said crowds to all three events had been good regardless.
"The town is booked out year on year, so as soon as one year finishes, people are rebooking. There isn't a great deal of accommodation in town, so neighboring towns down to Dimboola and Nhill have people booking up accommodation," he said.
"A couple of local businesses I've spoken to say it's been the best trading week of their year."
Ms Pulford's office said the event would bring up to 2,000 visitors to Rainbow this year, keeping local businesses and tourism operators thriving through winter.
The state government has also provided funding for the Nhill Airshow on November 2 and Ararat's Seriously Shiraz from 31 August to 1 September 2019 under the program.
For all three of the events, the dollar figure was not disclosed due to a confidentiality clause.
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