Audi - driving funds for Ronald McDonald House in QLD

ZETLAND, AUSTRALIA – Nov 8, 2013: The inaugural Audi Red Boot Rally kicks off on Wednesday 13 November 2013 with the goal to raise funds for Ronald McDonald House, South East Queensland (SEQ). The money raised by the initiative will assist seriously ill children and their families in their most critical time of need.

A joint initiative between Audi Centre Gold Coast and McDonald’s, the three day Audi Red Boot Rally will see twelve local business leaders, and their teams driving a range of Audi’s high-end performance cars around the beautiful South East Queensland region. The event aims to raise awareness as well as much needed funds for Ronald McDonald House SEQ.

The aim is to raise over $310,000 for the charity.

To enter a rally team, each business leader was required to raise a minimum of $10,000 for the charity. Thanks to a healthy sense of competition, many teams far exceeded fund-raising expectations.

Extra incentive was provided in the form of vehicle choice, with the ‘winning’ team able to have the first pick from a range of superlative performance cars from Audi, including the Audi R8.

The impressive range of vehicles to be driven in the Audi Red Boot Rally includes an R8 V10 Coupe, the mighty RS 6 Avant, RS5 Coupe or Cabriolet, an SQ 5 SUV and an RS 4 Avant. Despite the performance capabilities of the vehicle range, the Rally does not promote speed, but rather has ‘raising awareness’ as it’s primary objective.

The winning Car Captain, Nick Fischer from McDonald’s, opted for the mighty 4.0 litre V8 Biturbo RS 6 Avant which produces an amazing 412 kw of power.

RMH SEQ Principal Executive Officer, Christopher Macaulay, said the fundraising effort would provide much needed support for the charity.

“The Audi Red Boot Rally is a wonderful fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House SEQ which has a number of programs that support seriously ill children and their families.

“Feasibility studies show we need to increase our service delivery to keep up with the growing need in Queensland for our programs such as Ronald McDonald House and Ronald McDonald Family Rooms.

“We are looking to the future and preparing for how we can best meet that need. In order to do that, we rely on the constant and generous donations of businesses and individuals,” he said.

Audi Australia’s Managing Director, Andrew Doyle will also be getting behind the wheel of one of the rally vehicles to support the charity.

“The Audi Red Boot Rally is a great way of driving funds for an important cause. We are pleased to be supporting the activity as a fantastic initiative of one of our dealerships, along with McDonalds,” Mr Doyle said.

“Our company is regularly involved in charitable support around the final quarter of the year, and in 2013, the Audi Red Boot Rally is the primary recipient of that national support. This is an event which has been very popular amongst Gold Coast-based business leaders, it has encouraged friendly-but-fierce fundraising competition and a great sense of team spirit. We’re all looking forward to hitting the road next week,” Mr Doyle said.