PRESS RELEASE


2009 FIA World Rally Championship
Round 3 - Cyprus Rally - 13-15 March 2009

CYPRUS BREAKS NEW GROUND IN WRC RETURN


With rally fans already celebrating the return of the Cyprus Rally to next year’s FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), excitement levels ratcheted up another notch today with confirmation that the 2009 Cyprus Rally will be a mixed surface event. A WRC first!

The organizers of the Cyprus event, the Cyprus Automobile Association (CAA), have been quick to take advantage of the WRC commission’s ruling allowing events to incorporate alternate surfaces. The CAA has confirmed that it has designed Day 1 of next March’s Cyprus Rally as an asphalt leg, while Days 2 and 3 will continue to offer the sort of challenging gravel stages for which the event is renowned.

Clerk of the Course Takis Kyriakides spoke about the announcement today: “This is great news for competitors and spectators alike and is a great way to mark our return to the WRC. We’re already excited about welcoming the WRC back to Cyprus next year, and this adds a little extra spice to our event. We’ll be leading the way in world rallying by being the first to test out this new itinerary and I’ve already been contacted by the organisers of other WRC events who are all keen to see how we deal with the challenge so that they can incorporate it into their events. Cyprus is a holiday island with a strong rallying legacy and our ability to host a mixed-surface event such as this shows how much our island continues to offer to the world of motorsport.”

The Cyprus Rally will be one of 4 events rewarding points for next year’s Junior and Production WRC championships and the news that a third of the event is to be run on asphalt is sure to cheer the crews, especially those tackling the Rally in 2-wheel-drive vehicles. Plus, the new format will mean minimal double-use of gravel stages.