MOTORSPORT: Rally Oz to end 2016 WRC

World Rally Championship organisers have sided with Rally Australia instead of competitors over next season’s expanded calendar confirmed overnight.

The company WRC Promoter acceded to the wishes of the local organiser at NSW’s Coffs Harbour to be the final round on November 18-20 in a calendar with 14 events, including China for the first time since 1999.

Top WRC competitors, especially triple world champion manufacturer Volkswagen and its superstar French driver Sebastien Ogier, wanted the championship to end in Europe as usual.

However, WRC Promoter – partly-owned by the Red Bull energy drink company – said that, in moving from its September timing of recent years, Rally Australia “will be followed by a glamorous and high-profile gala finale to the season in Sydney”.

WRC Promoter managing director Oliver Ciesla said: “The Coffs Harbour rally is driven by an enthusiastic organising team with a refreshing attitude to promotional opportunities and fully deserves its place as the season’s final fixture.”

Rally Australia officials also want to retain the night stage they introduced this year, which top international drivers complained about – saying the lingering dust in the dark was a safety hazard, despite cars running five minutes apart.

The Citroen factory team and Ford squad M-Sport strongly opposed the WRC’s expansion to 14 rounds.

Citroen is weighing whether to pull out of the WRC or the World Touring Car Championship after next year.

The 2016 WRC will begin with the Monte Carlo Rally in January, but it and Rally France – on the island of Corsica late in the season – are still dependent on the event organisers finalising contracts, especially television arrangements, with WRC Promoter.

An elaborate start to the season is planned on Monte Carlo’s world-renowned Grand Prix circuit.

China’s return to the calendar is still subject to its organisers fulfilling some requirements of WRC Promoter after problems with a trial event this year.

Provided those matters are resolved the tarmac event will run as the 10th round on September 9-11, based in the Huairou district 70km from central Beijing.

Huairou hosted the 1999 WRC round in China and is said to have benefited from huge investment before last year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.

“China is the biggest car market globally and, by taking the WRC there, we offer manufacturers the opportunity to showcase their products via a championship focused on production-based vehicles,” Ciesla said.

Rally Great Britain, in Wales on October 28-30, will be the last European round and WRC Promoter said that date – two weeks earlier than normal – would “preserve the likelihood of tricky late-year conditions which make the event so challenging”.

Rally Australia has lobbied for a couple of years to have the last event in the WRC, hoping to revive some of the atmosphere the Adelaide Grand Prix generated when it concluded the Formula 1 World Championship from 1985 to 1995.

Rally Australia chairman Ben Rainsford has said that “having the final round will bring significant boosts in tourism attendance and media coverage and allow us to showcase the WRC at a gala event in Sydney”.

However, Ogier – who clinched his third drivers’ world title in Australia this year – said the Coffs Harbour roads were not appropriate for deciding the championship if the title fight went down to the wire three weeks after Rally GB.

“OK, we must always support the events to promote the rallies, but after that rally I’m not sure people want to stay longer - I think they might want to get home,” Ogier said.

The VW team’s German boss Jost Capito said: “We already have the FIA [Federation Internationale de l'Automobile] gala [each December] and we have our party ourselves. I'm not sure [a Sydney party is necessary].”

And Malcolm Wilson, head of M-Sport, said: “I can tell you now we won't be there.”

WRC competition manager, Michele Mouton – a former top driver with Audi, winning four WRC events and finishing runner-up in the 1982 championship, and later a victor at America's famed Pikes Peak hillclimb – brushed off complaints about visibility on the 7.94km Valla night stage at this year’s Rally Australia.

British driver Kris Meeke, who lost his lead in the event to Ogier on that stage but still finished on the podium in his Citroen, had called the night stage “a disgrace” and “stupid”, while VW boss Jost Capito said it “doesn’t add anything but risk”.

However, Mouton said there was “no safety issue”.

“The trouble with these drivers, they don’t like uncertainty and the dark brings uncertainty,” she said.

“They are not used to competing in the dark, but it is part of the challenge.”

Ogier called a meeting of drivers, co-drivers and the world head of motorsport, FIA president Jean Todt, on Corsica last month to discuss safety issues, including Rally Australia’s night stage.

Todt promised a full investigation but said that he strongly favoured night competition. “Night driving ... I am in favour. That’s rallying,” Todt said.

But he added: “If it is true after five minutes [that the Valla stage] was blocked with dust, this is not acceptable. In this case it’s unfair competition ... you have one guy at the front [in clear air] and then those behind with the road blocked.

“But if it’s not like this then I will encourage more organisers to run the night stages.”

A solution mooted for Rally Australia is to run the night stage on a tarmac road.