The organisers of the Ypres Rally are discontent with the organisation of the FIA European Rally Championship.
The Ypres Rally will be a round of the British Rally Championship in 2017.Alain Penasse, on behalf of the promoters of the event, has identified some of the reasons why the Belgian event feels that the ERC is not necessarily the place for them to be.
Last week the promoters of the 2017 British Rally Championship announced that the Belgian event will replace the Circuit of Ireland in the BRC Calendar.
“For me the championship misses the stars. And there are too many rallies on the islands which make it very difficult for a privateer team to cope with because of the huge cost and workload of that.
“So for me we have to get more centralised rallies, maybe one in England, one in France, one in Belgium and maybe one in Greece or one in Eastern Europe, but not like it is now.
“The championship is too much spread out. It is more complicated logistically to do European championship than to do European rounds in the World Championship, in fact. You have to go to Azores, to Grand Canarias, you have to go to Cyprus, as well as going to Greece.”
Regarding the arrival of the British championship (at next year’s Ypres Rally), will this affect the organisation?
“I don’t think the arrival of the British championship competitors in Ypres will make a big difference. We will have a few more British competitors with us, which is welcome.
“We have altered the route for 2017 already to give equal chances to every competitor. We make some new stages, opposite direction, just not to give the Belgian guys a huge advantage when the first timer British arrive.
“I think if we stay in the European championship we will need to have some discussions how we will handle (issues like seeding order), but that is for future discussions. First of all we have to have agreement with European Championship.
“For me the business model of the European championship doesn’t work anymore. That is the main point. The European championship has to make a decision whether they want Ypres in the championship or not.”
- Martin Holmes
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
