WRC heads to Russian

For the first time in Russian history our country gets a golden opportunity to host an event of the World Rally Championship (WRC). And as in any other kinds of sports, such a global and high-ranking event demands very serious preparations.



For organizing a rally in accordance to all requirements of the Federation International de l’Automobile (FIA), national officials are given two years. During this time a future round of the World Championship is held under candidate status, and preparations to it, as well as its organization and carrying out, are carefully observed by the FIA representatives. Following the results of each rally an observer conducts a report, based on which organizers of the event imply necessary changes for the next season.



Annually the FIA considers applications from different countries for holding an event of the World Championship, but only few of them get a chance of holding at least a candidate event. All rallies are run over the routes of national championships’ rounds, and for the most important event it is the best national rally that is generally chosen – the most interesting, the most difficult and the most fascinating.



However, a good route is not enough for hosting a round of the World Championship.



The first and also the most important question, attracting the most attention, is providing safety during a rally. Any motorsport competition document contains the following warning in capitalization: MOTORSPORT CAN BE DANGEROUS! And, of course, any organizer pays maximum attention to safety issues. However, the World Championship requires a completely different level of approaching such matters. For example, in the WRC a special system is used, which allows to track every car on stage in any moment of time – and this allows to provide an emergency if needed and warn other competitors of a dangerous situation ahead.



Secondly, the World Championship rounds have a very big mileage – up to 400 kilometers of special stages (while national competitions are used to run within 150-200 kilometers of competitive distance). This means that the world level competition-hosting region must provide an opportunity to prepare new special stages.



Together with sportsmen a huge amount of “support crews” arrives – managers, mechanics, engineers and media representatives. World-level teams have their own medics, cooks and even weather forecasters in their staff. In addition, regular fans and a lot of journalists come from all over the world. Hence, the WRC-hosting region must have a modern infrastructure, a good traffic network, and a developed tourist business.



And, finally, organization of a WRC round is a process, in which a huge amount of people is involved, and which requires lots of financial investments. For example, about 3-4 million euros is spent on preparation of Neste Oil Rally Finland. It should be mentioned, though, that an average income of holding a three-day rally (including tourism and souvenirs) estimates 20 million euros.



It wasn’t by accident that organizers of the Russian round of the WRC chose the region of Novorossiysk.



A resort zone with a lot of hotels and holiday houses is combined with experience and capabilities to welcome many tourists at once. Three airports, motorways, a seaport make it all possible. Subtropical climate and the “velvet” season – it’s all about it. And of course – the route. The unique, not having any analogues, tracks, offer both rough and fast gravel stages in vineyards and narrow, twisty and dangerous mountain roads.



Novorossiysk Rally holds a well-deserved reputation of the most unpredictable rally in the country. For the last few years the showdown of the Russian Championship has been held in Novorossiysk, and it was there where the destiny of gold medals used to be decided. The one to conquer those roads used to take the title of the fastest driver in the country, and it’s not accidentally – “Novorossiysk” doesn’t forgive mistakes neither in driving nor in strategy.


“Novorossiysk Rally of Russia 2008” promises to become a unique rally. This event has already broken fresh ground in the annals of the world’s motorsport – among the countries, proven worthy of hosting WRC rounds, did appear the name of Russia. Now it’s up to us, if we can create a competition of a completely different level for our country. Because, judging by its difficulty, prestige and scale, the WRC – is an activity at the level of the Olympic games, but in contrast to it, a round of the World Championship takes place in a country not once, but annually. We have two years to prove that Russia deserves such an honor.