World Rally Championship coming to Brisbane 2008

Brisbane has been confirmed as the new host of Rally Australia following the FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Barcelona yesterday.

It is the first time a World Rally Championship calendar has been finalised so far in advance.

Garry Connelly, who will stand down as Australian Rally Commission chairman at the end of the year, said more details on the new home of the Australian leg of the WRC would become known during Rally Australia in Perth on October 27-29.

"We will make an announcement during Rally Australia and all the fine details will be released," Connelly said.

Australia will be missing from the World Rally Championship calendar next year with the final WRC round to be staged in Corsica after being based out of Perth since the late 1980s.

WRC commercial rights holder David Richards says it is good news that Australia will return to the championship in 2008 and he has endorsed Queensland as an ideal venue.

There remains a degree of mystery about IQG Rally Events Australia which has been appointed as the promoter of the Queensland event.

The only thing known is that the WRC round will be held within a 50km radius of Brisbane, using forestry roads much closer to the state capital than the long-running Australian Rally Championship round based around Imbil near Gympie.

Richards, who runs the Prodrive racing operation out of Banbury in England which fields the Subaru World Rally Team, is delighted that Gold Coast ace Chris Atkinson has been signed for a third season with the team in 2007.

"He's done a really good job and we think we've found the main handling problems with the car that have dogged our progress in the WRC," Richards said.

It is known that Suzuki has chased hard to sign Atkinson who has done a tidy job against the world's best along with his co-driver Glenn Macneall.

WORLD RALLY STANDINGS

After 13 of 16 rounds

1 Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) 112

2 Marcus Gronholm (Ford) 87

3 Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) 47

4 Daniel Sordo (Citroen) 43

5 Manfred Stohl (Peugeot) 34

Last Rd: Winner Marcus Gronholm, Turkey, Oct 15.

Next Rd: Perth, Oct 27-29.

TV: Ch 10: Oct 29, 2pm.