Pace Notes

The International Tennis Federation has decided it wants the pinnacle of its sport to break new geographical boundaries. The Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open championships will now be run every other year. In place of the big four will be tournaments in Russia, Indonesia, Bulgaria and Poland.

Sound okay? Thought not. Just imagine if the above happened. There would be uproar. And not just in SW19.

But that's exactly what's happening in the World Rally Championship.

The Citroen of Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena, Rally Monte Carlo © LAT

Last week's World Motor Sport Council gave the WRC an enormous shot in the arm with a rubber stamp on technical regulations for 2010 and beyond and the agreement to a global promoter for the sport. Fantastic.

And then there was more good news: the winter calendar from August 2010 onwards has also been granted.

Standing on the verge of making a good meeting great for the WRC, the FIA then, in my opinion, slipped up in not reversing its decision to force the world's most famous rallies: Monte Carlo, the Swedish, Tour de Corse, 1,000 Lakes, Acropolis and the RAC (sorry, old habits ...) to play second fiddle every other year to rallies with zero pedigree.

I completely understand the need to bring in new events. Without the onset of a rotation policy, places like Jordan this year and Norway, Portugal (a returning classic) and Ireland last season would have gone undiscovered and the WRC would have been much the poorer without them. But surely there's room for compromise between complete and partial rotation of events included in the WRC calendar.

For those not quite up to speed with the latest WRC calendar news, a brief update: 2009 has 12 rallies - including a return to Cyprus and a first time out in Poland. Nothing changes for 2009.

But for the year after, change is a reasonably common theme. The first half of 2010 will include eight rallies. At the moment, those eight rallies are: Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, Jordan, Turkey, New Zealand, Indonesia and Russia.

It's proposed that the 2010 World Rally Championships are decided on those eight rallies (stay on the line, though, those eight rallies could change). August, 2010, until April, 2011, will be another World Rally Championship.

I'm all for this change to a winter calendar. It's not too dissimilar to what we have now. The gap between last year's Rally GB and this year's Monte was not much bigger than the current break from last month's Rally of Turkey until the start of Rally Finland at the end of July.

The only difference will be the date of the WRC awards ceremonies - and most people would rather party in Paris or Monaco, wherever the awards are held, in summer than winter.

More importantly, the winter calendar takes the WRC away from potential clashes with major summer events, hiking demand for the sport at a time when its 'only' rivals should be rugby and football.

Talking of rugby, if you want an example of how this theory of turning a calendar on its head can work, look at rugby league: since its switch from winter to summer, the game, pretty big to start with, has grown and grown.

The Ford of Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen, Rally Ireland © LAT

Along with the August to April calendar, the schedule is also set to rise from 12 to 14 rallies. Last year we had 16. This year we have 15. Next year we have 12. Then, 2010 is likely to be eight - but that's only part of 2010. The other part of 2010, the part which runs into 2011, comprises 14 rallies.

And there was me thinking one of the key factors being built into our sport was consistency ...

Running 14 rallies in a season is fine, but this is where the FIA could fall down with its refusal to grant the six founding rallies a regular slot. Running 14 rallies and rotation, the FIA needs 28 world-class rallies every two years. Do we have 28 rallies of that quality right now? Not a hope.

Are we likely to have 28 rallies of that calibre in the next few years? It's possible, but given the current global economic downturn, the likelihood of governments, ASNs or private funding chucking millions at securing a WRC round would seem a touch fanciful.

That's why I simply don't understand why the FIA hasn't relented and locked the six founding rallies into an annual calendar, while retaining the capacity to rotate the remaining eight, thus ensuring the word of the WRC is spread truly worldwide.

The FIA's argument would be one of providing parity among the WRC stakeholders; if it was to allow a distortion within the organising group, then why not let Citroen enter three point-scoring cars, while the rest run two?

Yes, all events are equal in status when they're included in the WRC calendar, but surely there's a case for the likes of the Monte, 1000 Lakes, the RAC, et al to be more equal than others. It's such a bizarre situation. We go from starting the 2010 calendar in Monte Carlo, to starting the 2010/2011 calendar in, wait for it Borovets. For the Monte Carlo Rally read Rally Bulgaria.

I'm sure Borovets is a fine place, but it's town centre is not likely to offer a start ramp backdrop that rivals Casino Square.

I'm not some world rally anorak who loathes change and doesn't see the sport the same since itineraries dropped below 70 stages, six days and ten minutes' sleep. I am cautious of change (I think it's a default setting which comes with working in the WRC), but when it's well-reasoned and sensible, change is a good thing. For me, this is neither.

I'm not saying give those six rallies carte blanche to do as they please - although reigning in the Monte organisers is no easy task ... If these events don't come up to scratch, they get binned in the same way as an event with a one or 100-year history will.

Those six rallies are sensational selling points for our sport, so why not use them? Hiding its light under a bushel is second nature to the WRC, but the FIA has taken great strides to stop that from being the case - now it needs to take one more leap and bring back the big six at October's World Council meeting.

By the way, Wimbledon will be on next year.