DAVID EVANS

“This soap opera has yet to reach a conclusion”

The car park of the 1,000-seater Coffs Harbour International Stadium on an unseasonably damp Sunday morning. The temptation to reach for Eliot and The Hollow Men is impossible to ignore. “This is the way the world ends.” Sebastien Ogier, conqueror of our world for the last five years, is sixth overall, two minutes off the lead. “Not with a bang, but a whimper.” Ogier and M-sport team principal Malcolm Wilson stand, each carefully avoiding the puddles which now litter the service park. There’s not much more to be said. But, at the same time, there’s a world of talking still to do.

In his own words, Ogier’s mind is: “99 per cent made.” Whatever that means.

The one sure thing is that he doesn’t have anything further to add. Actually, that’s one of two sure things, the other being that he won’t be back with Citroen.

Astonishingly, the French manufacturer has let a national hero slip once again. What, one wonders, does this say about Citroen’s commitment to its future in the World Rally Championship? An Ogierled Red Army could well have marched on former glories once more in 2018. But no. The handful of millions that would have turned a Parisian marketing dream to reality couldn’t be found.

So, it’s Ford Fiesta time again; Fiesta or maybe a prolonged siesta.

Either way, in the world of Neighbours and Home and Away, the Ogier storyline is beginning to look a little like a soap opera. Certainly, it’s one that kept the WRC’S media totally tuned. Angles were sought, lines chased, but nothing. There was nowhere to go. Two endings to this one have been filmed. The one that will be aired will be the precursor to Ogier at M-sport season two, starting in January.

I simply can’t see that he’s going anywhere. He wants to go; he wants to take time with his family and he wants to live his life. But he’s a 33-year-old man at the height of his power and totally on top of his game.

Forget that scrappy affair in Australia, that wouldn’t be a fitting exit event for him and nor will it be. If Ogier was going to retire, I’m sure he would have retired at the end of Wales and he wouldn’t be letting Wilson run himself ragged trying to piece together the budget to keep him in the seat next season. There’s no need for a bang or a whimper, there was no end of the world in Coffs Harbour last weekend.

There will, however, be an end for Coffs Harbour in the WRC next season. It’s looking increasingly likely that Australia’s round will switch its base after seven years on the Bananacoast. Must admit, there are things I’d miss about Coffs, the stunning roads and outlandish, outback vistas are at the top of that list. But the lack of a population base will begin to really tell as pressure grows on every round of the championship to justify its slot on the calendar.

Wherever we go in Oz, however, two things will remain: the ability to organise a superb round of the WRC and the outstanding hospitality.