Posts Tagged ‘world council’

Next victim of the new calendar: Wales?

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

I’ve previously discussed what happens to old, solid events that suddenly stand without money when financers back of because of the recent calendar changes by the FIA. After Norway and Sweden it now seems that yet another organiser has ran into problems, the Wales Rally GB. Despite a contract running to 2011, the local government (WAG) will draw back their 2,2M pound sponsorship, because of the events’ lack of WRC status in 2010.

2,2 million pounds are really a big amount of money, so now it seems like the organisers are in a real hurry. The event is planned to run in October – and to be presented to the press and public already at the end of April. According to BBC, organisers plan to take legal action against the government, but that can of course be quite time consuming and the question is now wether the Wales Rally GB can be run this year?

For sure, time will show what happens, but until then it’s interesting to note the big difference in economy between different events. If the Swedish Rally had 2,2M pounds from the goverment each year – the budget of the event would be doubled according to the figures I’ve got. That would probably be quite a boost to quality, pricings and experience – so think of that difference next time you visit a WRC rally…

Read the BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8000216.stm

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Posted in WRC | 1 Comment »

BREAKING NEWS: Winter season already in 2009-2010 – new season with Super2000 as main class from September

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

EDIT: As most of you have probabaly understood by now, this was only a 1st of April Joke. Happy fools day, all!

A FIA representative in Algarve that I’ve been in contact with have confirmed the rumours that has circulated down in Portugal during the day: the WRC season 2009 will end already in May after the Ralli d’Italia-Sardegna – and then leave room for a new winter-based season starting in September this year. The main class during that new season will be the Super2000 class, with the same technical specifications as the Super2000 class used in the IRC.

The decision was made this morning at a meeting in Algarve with the most important FIA delegates, mobilised by Max Mosley – president of the organisation. The formal decision is scheduled to be taken this evening during a meeting starting at 7PM Portugese time, allowing for the FIA to inform media, team, organisers and fans already tomorrow – before the Rally of Portugal get’s started.

Swedish rally driver Daniel Carlsson is chocked but happy about the decision:

- I had no clue this was coming, but we saw already in the last World Council meeting that Max [Mosley] wanted to speed up the conversion to Super2000. Now, he has certainly done that and it will of course cause some problems to those drivers and teams that have commited to the full season – but at the same time I don’t see why we should wait for a change that we know are to come. Super2000 is the best class to attract manufacturers, so I think it makes sense to do it immediately. To me it feels like FIA has finally got their pieces together and made a good decision for the development of WRC.

I’ll get back with more information on this subject as soon as possible.

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Posted in Rally testing, WRC | 4 Comments »

Winter season and S2000 without turbo in 2010

Friday, February 27th, 2009

As I speculated before Max Mosley’s famous meeting in Paris a week ago, FIA have now changed their mind about the 2010 regulations. From the plans on a Super2000+ formula where the plus represented an additional kit including a turbocharger, they’ve now backed off and decided (the formal decision is to be made in the next World Council meeting) that the main class of the WRC from 2010 will be Super2000 – without turbo, but with an extra air package. The extra package is just a kit allowing for a little bit larger parts on the car creating another aerodynamic profile, if I get things right. Anyway, it’s perfectly clear there wont be a turbo.

What more became clear on the meeting is the likeliness of a new winter-based calendar starting in August, making the season break appear on the summer months. I don’t know if it’s good – but for sure rallying competes with a lot of different things, including a lot of other motorsports, in the summer – so why not try? I mean… We wont lose the summer-like conditions, they can be found on many places even in a calendar spanning from August to April or May!?!

All this things will probably be finally decided on the next World Council meeting on the 19th of March.

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Posted in WRC | No Comments »