Todt and Vatanen Give their Rally Views
Press Conferences were given by both the FIA Presidential candidates, each former professional rally competitors, during the Catalunya Rally weekend. Jean Todt quietly confirmed his opinion that rally sport must continue to accept the limitation created by the changing world, in which the number of cars on the roads in the next ten years is likely to double "We are not to return to the rallying world of 10-15 years ago, however good this was. We are lucky there is still a world championship when there is a world economic crisis. We need more manufacturers in the championship, but that is only possible if there is stability in the rules. A complete inventory of all the forms of rally sport is necessary, to see if there are in fact too many forms of rally type events." Ari Vatanen spoke at length about his vision of the future and about his personal passions, emphasizing how that the FIA should follow the United Nations in selecting leaders who come from smaller countries! "I have no road map for rallying, but rallying is not blossoming at this time. Costs need to be reduced and value increased. There is a need for a long term vision and stability. Rallying is like a big cake, which offers opportunities to many people, but the cake is frozen at the moment." Vatanen then spoke about ways he believes the FIA fails in its work at this time. "The World Council is a rubber stamp, making decisions without discussion or debate, and individual commissions are useless. The FIA needs more democracy, more transparency and a better voting system. In the past three months I have been finding out a lot of things about the way the FIA works and I have discovered things I would rather not have known."

Poor entry for Rally GB
Entries for the 2009 Rally GB (formerly Wales Rally GB) closed this week at a record low of 64, the smallest field for this event since the start of the FIA’s World Rally championship (in 1973). The quality however is there, with entries for no fewer than seven Citroens C4. This event counts for the Production Car World Championship, the favourite Armindo Araujo competes on the event but will not be allowed to score more points, as he has already contested the regulatory six rallies already this season. There are no Guest entries registered in the lists of PCWRC drivers at the moment. Hermann Gassner Junior takes over the Sidvin team’s entry, Ralliart New Zealand’s usual driver Eyvind Brynildsen drives this time in the Errani Team and Giorgio Bacco drives the Ralliart New Zealand entry instead. Matthew Wilson is the top seeded British driver but professional drivers like Kris Meeke, Guy Wilks, Mark and David Higgins are all missing, as is the new British champion Keith Cronin.

Decisions coming soon
The FIA Appeal hearing against the exclusion of the Group N Subaru Impreza of Nasser Al Attiyah from second place in the PCWRC category on the Acropolis Rally in June is to be heard on 6th October the result of which will decide whether Armindo Araujo in fact clinched the title in Australia (which will happen if the Appeal fails) or whether Nasser lives to fight for the chance of winning the title at Rally GB, which happens if the Appeal succeeds. The Prodrive company, which prepared the engine of Al Attiyah that scrutineers said did not conform with the rules that metal must not be removed even when the crankshaft was being balanced , will follow the decision with great concern. A Prodrive insider stated that he imagined the decision will be very difficult to make, and maybe a compromise verdict will be sought.
The Battle for the French WRC event is now down to three candidates following the withdrawal by the organisation of Limoges from the race to run the French round of the World Rally Championship in 2010 and onwards. The three remaining candidates are the existing venue in Corsica and the challengers from Alsace and Burgundy. Decision day is Tuesday 7th October.

3mmm
photo: Quesnel (Citroen team boss) and Jean Todt