Leading Australian rally team, Activ Rallysport, is performing a juggling act as they try and work out which championships their customers will contest in 2020.
The team had initially planned to contest the Australian Rally Championship with Nathan Quinn, JJ Hatton and Justin and Troy Dowel, however the Coronavirus pandemic threw those plans into disarray.
Now, with so many events likely to be scheduled in the second half of the year, the team is trying to work out who wants to do what, when and where.
"It might end up being a case of majority rules," team manager, Will Orders, said.
"In theory there could be nine events over a 13 week period that our customers want to contest, which in reality is probably stretching our resources too far.
"Four or five events would be ideal from July onwards, but like everyone, we're waiting to see what the rules are going to be as the restrictions are loosened."
Richie Dalton's Fiesta was to be driven by Nathan Quinn in the ARC. Photo: Peter Whitten
The first event for the Activ Rallysport team will be the Rally of the Bay on July 4, with likely entries for Richie Dalton (Ford Fiesta), Arron Windus (Subaru) and JJ Hatton.
For that event, teams look likely to be restricted to two mechanics per car, which is just one of the new rules that will put pressure on the bigger teams.
There are also a host of unknowns, plus the time pressures of fixing damaged cars in a shortened timeframe between events.
"It's a complex situation and one that we're working through," Orders added.
"Justin and Troy will most likely end up competing where the majority of our customers want to be, but exactly where that is is still a work in progress."
Ironically, after months of twiddling our thumbs, we're approaching several months where there'll simply be more rallies being run than there are competitors (and resources) to go around.
And there lies another unwanted consequence of COVID-19.
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