Rally Poland bosses working on a return to the WRC schedule
Despite the news that Rally Poland has been dropped from the World Rally Championship calendar next year, organisers have vowed to start working to improve safety and return.
The Mikolajki-based event was dropped from the schedule after spectator control problems at this year’s event – the FIA had already given the rally a formal warning for just this issue in 2015.
Clerk of the course Jaroslaw Noworol said the incidents were caused by human error and not negligence on the part of his team.
“As the organisers of the rally, we take full responsibility for the incidents that have taken place and have led to a negative assessment of safety standards,” said Noworol.
“We do not intend to give up our efforts to return to the elite circle of WRC rounds in subsequent years. We are starting to work on developing a new rally safety concept using the help offered by the FIA Safety Department.
“It is worth emphasising the high overall evaluation of the rally confirmed in the relevant documents of the FIA Delegates assessing the organisation of the event. Detailed reports by the FIA representatives confirm that, apart from safety issues, there were no other significant objections to our rally.
“As the safety of the fans is crucial for the FIA, unfortunately, Rally Poland was not included in the next year’s WRC calendar.”
Despite ongoing unrest in certain regions, Turkey returns to the series for the first time since 2010. A Marmaris-based event will run in September, 2018. The only other significant change for next season involves Rally Spain and Wales Rally GB switching dates ( see story left).
WRC Promoter’s Oliver Ciesla explained the decision to take the series back to Turkey, saying: “Turkey is a hugely important car market, in terms of both sales and manufacturing. Record sales of almost a million vehicles were recorded in 2016 and the sporting reasons for its reintroduction are matched by a compelling business rationale too.
“I’m delighted Turkey’s return was unanimously supported by our participating manufacturers.”