Madiera drops out of IRC calender

Rali Vinho Madeira has been removed from this year's IRC calender and from next year's calender, citing financial problems. The rally was due to run at the beginning of August.

The rally, based on the Portuguese island of Madeira, was to be the seventh round of the series. A completely sealed surface encounter, the rally would mark the return to tarmac after the series switched to gravel for the Sata Rally Acores in mid July.

“The rally informed us recently that they would no longer be able to honour the terms of their contract with Eurosport Events [promoters of the IRC], notably part of their funding obligations. This has created a number of logistical and operational difficulties and is not what we would have expected from an event promoter. As a result we have decided to remove the rally from our calendar for this year and 2012 when our existing agreement was due to expire.” said Geraldine Filiol of Eurosport Events.

The rally will not be replaced with another event so the IRC will straight go to the Czech Republic for the Barum Czech Rally Zlin at the end of August after they complete the Sata Rally Acores.