Peugeot Sport WRC team boss Corrado Provera says Africa, and in particular South Africa, should be given another chance to host a round of the World Rally Championship.
Peugeot Sport WRC team boss Corrado Provera says Africa, and in particular South Africa, should be given another chance to host a round of the World Rally Championship.
“I would like a rally in South Africa, for two reasons. First, because a world championship without an event in Africa is not a world championship; and from a car market point of view, South Africa is much more interesting than Kenya or Morocco or anywhere else. An event in Africa is good for the championship and also for Africa,” Provera said.
No African substitute has been actively promoted since the Safari Rally was dropped after 2002. CARtoday.com recently reported that there were South African plans to stage a World Championship rally. FIA president Max Mosley has said that the in order for the WRC to become more credible it will need to incorporate more events in addition to the current 16.
“Probably in the medium to long term, we are likely to see a greater spread of rallies and at the moment that’s been achieved by increasing the number,” Mosley said. “In the future, if we want to be more spread out around the world, we are going to have to re-distribute at some point.
Peugeot has historically done well on African rounds of the World Championship (it has won all three of the different events held there), but while Provera would welcome another African event, he stressed that a Chinese rally is his priority. PSA (Peugeot’s parent company) is investing 600 million euros in its factory in Wuhan and intends to produce 300 000 cars per year for sale in China, evenly divided between Citroen and Peugeot.
