Germany In - Portugal Out

[AndyF]

Next year's Rally calendar will see Germany added to the existing events, at the expense of Portugal reports autosport.com.

[Buckshot]

What sort of rally will it be ? Tarmac or otherwise ?

[Devlin]

It's a tarmac event, held around the town of Trier, close to the border with France. Now they're only waiting to see which date the German F1 GP gets for next year, so they can set the actual date of the rally (most probably a week after Hockenheim). I'm not so sure it would be such a good idea to put the two events too close to each other, though...
On the other hand, if the story about Portugal rally turns out to be true, I'm really gonna miss the Fafe jump! Could this be too harsh a penalty for crowd-control problems? Couldn't they just add another event to the calendar? Breaks between the existing ones are too long anyway!

[AndyF]

Yeah, there are some large gaps in the calendar, but I think the governing body don't want to add any more events. The season is long enough anyway - February/March - November!

[Ricardo]

Im a portuguese Rally fan, and unfortunatly seems like this is going to be true: Portugal Rally is going to be banned !!! I´ve been watching this rally is the stages, all over the country since 1979, so I think I know what Im talking about. Let me present you with some facts.

* Holding the crowd has always been a problem here, for the simple fact that we have 1.000.000 fans on the road. The organization has done a fantastic job all these years, improving the safety of all, and also the pilots. Since 1986 that nothing serious happened.
* The accident with the Ford rs 200 in 86 could have happened anywhere, since the problem was with the cars, not with the rally fans. Unfortunatly the death of Henry in Corsica prove it, and it hapeened in a rally which doesnt have spectators at all.
* The portuguese rally is part of the history of WRC, along with some others like Monte or Safari, and it is sad to know that it is going to be replaced by a "tarmac highway rally"
* Portugal is neither a tyre or a car manufacturer, and seems that someothers think rallying is all about that... Why not held some rallys in Korea than?
* There are 2 guys trying to take control of our sport, exclusively for money, politics or power reasons : Mr David Richards (great Ari co-driver) and Mr Shektar Metha (great, only, safari Driver). They are trying to be the Eclestones of this sport, and of course Mosley also goes with this guys, only to stay on top...
* This year rally was awful, due to the weather conditions, but safety was never a issue, despite all reports that some Fia guys have written... Everyone thinks Portugal is sunny, but sometimes we also have some central european weather...
* The Rallys that you all say can allso be in the list, are not really. The Safari will stay since all the commercial rights are property of the ISC company, owned by D.Richards, it will be business as usual. The main organiser of the Cyprus event is S.Metha, which is at the same time president of the FIA rally comission, and the Sanremo is held in a country with hudge interests in the car industry, despite all the problems, and of course they are going to take the decision before the 2001 event take place...
* We had a great rally fan, called Cesar Torres which was also the organiser of our rally till a few years ago. He was very well considered by the FIA, when this organisation ruled motorsport, not a business like today. He died, of cancer, and since that time, the "new" Fia guys made the warning to our new organisers: "You know... you had this rally up till now because of Cesar Torres, but now...at the minimum mistake you guys are out" > S.Metha

And much more could be said... As a rally fan, and not as a portuguese, I kindely ask all of you that feel this sport in the heart like me, to express, in every form you can, our deep disagreement with this decision. Because this is just the begining of transforming our sport in some pure commercial and politic TV event which will end being offered to other countrys after a few guys have made their money, and some other new "real sports" take the place.

As a rally fan, of course I will be following the WRC, and I have the same respect for other events like Monte Carlo, which Im plannig to follow in 2002.

LET THE REAL WORLD RALLY CHAPIONSHIP LIVE !!!

[Speedworx]

Portugal is not a good rally, so I won't miss it.

I would rather have the Ypres rally, than the German one.