Rally Bulgaria staging another event in the WRC in the near future is in serious doubt, even though Morrie Chandler has praised the event, saying that there was nothing 'technically wrong' with the Eastern European event.
Rumored lack of interest from manufacturers on the commercial side has apparently put paid to the appearance of Bulgaria in the WRC again.
Citroen Racing boss Oliver Quensel said: “The drivers enjoyed it but for the manufacturers I am not sure it’s the right country to do rallying because we need more people. As rallying is not in a good shape I think we need to be in other countries than this one. I don’t think it will be a good idea to come back in the future.”
Boss of M-Sport Malcolm Wilson seems to support Quensel's views on the event: “From the stages point of view there’s no complaints from that side or the sporting side but I really find it difficult to think this is the right place to have a world championship event.”
However, WRC Commission head Morrie Chandler said that while there was nothing 'technically wrong' with the event, he feared that it didn't tick the promotional boxes.
“From a technical perspective I don’t think it’s fallen down. But from a promotional point of view I’m not sure it met the mark.”
“As an event it’s got all of the rally feeling with lots of people out on the stages but there’s not the population here [in Borovets], I talked to the organiser about why they’re not in Sofia because that was part of the discussion early on.”
“That same question goes for most of our events. There are events in this year that don’t know where they are for next year. It’s not a good way of creating stability and creating organisers who are prepared to invest.” he added.
One of the promotional problems that he feared prevented the Bulgarian event from appearing again in the WRC was that the organisers based the event in Borovets, a beautiful skiing resort in itself, instead of basing the event in Sofia, the capital. The organisers responded to this, claiming that the Government refused to allow them to base the event in Sofia because they feared that it would add to the already traffic congested area, causing gridlock.
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