[Widget Codriver]

I just received this note from an old road racing buddy along with an 800 KB Word document from the FIA.

It sounds like the FIA is officially setting up a Rally Championship of North America. While I don't think all rallies should be FIA (especially at the club level), in my opinion it's good that our chunk of the world has at least some transcontinental international presence.

====================

Messieurs,

Veuillez trouver ci-joint, le rapport des décisions du Conseil Mondial de la FIA du 13 décembre 2002, la version française vous sera envoyée sous peu.

* * * *

Dear Sirs,

Please find here enclosed, the report of the decisions of the FIA World Council of December 13th 2002, you will receive the French version shortly.

Here's the beginning of Appendix III of the document.

===============

III. FIA RALLY SERIES OF NORTH AMERICA

It is decided that an FIA Rally Championship of North America be created for 2004, made up of events taking place in Mexico, the United States and Canada.

The following candidate events will be observed in 2003:

26 February-2 March Rallye du Québec (CDN)
13-16 March Corona Rally Mexico (MEX)
16-18 May Cherokee Trails International Rally (USA) *
11-12 July Rally Internacional de las 24 Horas (MEX)
12-14 September Wild West International Rally (USA)
23-26 October Rallye International de Charlevoix (CDN)
11-14 December Ramada Express International Rally (USA)

The World Council has given its agreement in principle on the basis of the following sporting regulations which will be observed by all the above candidate rallies in the 2003 Series for inclusion in the 2004 FIA Championship.... (details followed)

[hr]

[p align=right]John Dillon
John @ WidgetRacing.com
www.WidgetRacing.com

 

[comicozzie]

Holy crap!!! Does this mean that 2003 will be the last year that the SCCA has its mittens on Wild West as a part of their series? Does the SCCA know and approve this? Couldn't this mean factory teams (ProDrive's Subes and Vermont SC's Mitsus) leaving the SCCA series... the death knoll for the series in an IRL vs. CART sorta way? That would be a major boondoggle to the SCCA if that happens. Enquiring minds want to know.:7

Jerry

P.S. What's with the asterisk by Cherokee Trails?

 

[johnkshirley]

The * relates to our change of date.

John

 

[Ray]

Does this mean that it will only be for the classes of A8/N4?
If so,.. there will be a lot of drivers having to "remodel" their cars to spec.
Or could this finally be a chance for the smaller classes (A6/F2) to have some recognition?

Whiplash RallyeSport

 

[Sean Lucas]

I thought that this would be for N4 cars, however would'nt this be a regional championship, therefore, the new detuned WRC spec cars, or what ever the new class is made up of instead of wrc or A8.

A6 in North America I would have thought would have been really under subscribed. I'm not aware of many 1600cc cars that are sold in the US and Canada anymore.

 

[robin]

This is CNAR n'est-ce pa?

There's the third tier. This is where manufacturers should be involved - this is where the full set of FIA classes should run.

Why is this thread in the USA forum?

Robin

 

[ProRallyPix]

>The * relates to our change of date.

Then somebody needs to put **! next to that Wild West date.
Maybe the FIA uses a french calendar.

Jim Culp
part-time NWR web guy
[http://www.nwr-scca.org/rally/]

 

[Ray]

Let me name a few...
Hyundai, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Ford, GM.
Do these companies sound familiar?

Whiplash RallyeSport