The organisers of the bid for Japan to return to the FIA World Rally Championship calendar have announced a warm up event before this season’s Kennards Hire Rally Australia.
Designed to help the team’s in the WRC to look and inspect the potential service area and possible stage routes ahead of next season, the two-day event will take place a week before the season finale in Australia.
Central Rally Aichi 2019 is planned to have seven stages totalling 123.26km in the Aichi Prefecture area of the country as the WRC Japan Round Bid Committee aim to help the country return to the WRC for the first time in 10 years.
After having a similar candidate rally last season where some 50,000 fans attended the event in the city of Shinshiro, the organisers took another step with their bid after showcasing their ideas at the recent Motorsport Japan Festival in Tokyo where WRC Promoting managing director Oliver Ciesla was shown the plans.
Japan last appeared on the WRC calendar back in 2010 when based in the city of Sapporo, where now six-time champion Sébastien Ogier won the event ahead of Petter Solberg with Jari-Matti Latvala completing the top three overall.
