International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC) is looking to expand the FIA World Rally Championship to fifteen events starting in 2011, according to an article on eWRC.cz. This year, the series ran twelve events. The calendar will expand to thirteen rounds next season.
In an interview with Motorsport Aktuell, a German racing publication, ISC boss Neil Duncanson confirmed the expansion and dropped a few hints as to where new rounds could be held. Included in the list was the United States.
The last time a round of the WRC was held in the United States was in 1998. John Buffum finished Olympus Rally third overall in an Audi Coupe Quattro.
Drivers, like Patrik Sandell, have publicly commented on their desire to have a WRC presence here. Still, there is a certain disdain the international rally community has for Rally America and the domestic way of running things. As much as I’d love a round domestically, domestic organizers have a lot of work ahead of them if they plan on submitting a bid. I’ll need to see it before I believe it.
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There have been several attempts by other organizers with other sanctioning bodies to attract the WRC to the US. They have even gone as far as listing events on the FIA calendar and having FIA inspectors come look at events. I think the main issue has always been the financial ability to support a WRC event as well as the actual infrastructure availability such as hotels and airports within a reasonable distance to the event.
ISC was looking at International Rally New York a few years ago, but the same questions arose. Would there even be enough interest to justify bringing the WRC here? They want our money, but you’re right, would they put up with the organizations in order to get it? That I don’t know…
They also looked at Laughlin a few years back, and I think the organization was OK, but there was concern over difficulty of travel for overseas teams as well as hotel capacity. They were trying to pitch Vegas as only an hour away for hotels, but in the end I think the financial depth of the organization was an issue. Unfortunately, in the US the organizers have to fund it all out of their own pockets as event sponsorship seems to be very difficult to come by. I am not sure any of them could bankroll the dollars required to operate.
All that being said, it would be great to have top level rally back in the US again, and they sponsors sure must be keen to access the US market.