WRC: Indonesia’s WRC bid falters

Indonesia's hopes of hosting a round of the World Rally Championship have taken a major blow with the cancellation of its Asia-Pacific Rally Championship date.

The WRC hasn’t been staged in Indonesia since 1997 and the tourist board were fully behind the bid to stage the rally again. However, the decision had already been taken to cancel Rally Indonesia's WRC candidacy status on September 25/26, and now the whole event has been postponed.

The Makassar-based rally had been at the centre of speculation for a while, but, just as the fifth round of the APRC series kicks off in New Calendonia, confirmation came through that round six has been canned, and the event will not be replaced on the calendar, moving instead onto its final round in China this November.

A statement regarding the termination of Indonesia's WRC bid read: "While it was BMI's [Bloedus Management Indonesia - rally organiser] clear intention to run a candidate event as close as possible to the FIA WRC requirements and standards, BMI concluded that the huge investments necessary to achieve that level are hard to justify in the current economic situation."

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Josh Modaberi