Rally Austalia set to become biennial

Australia returned to the WRC for the first time since 2006 last week, with what was reckoned to be a largely successful debut on the east coast of the country.

Unfortunately for rally fans in the New South Wales area, it seems they won't be seeing the finest drivers more than once every 24 months, courtesy of a policy of event rotation.

Chairman of the Rally Australia organisers, Garry Connelly, said: "When we started working on this event, the FIA told us it would be rotation, so we signed an agreement with the New South Wales government to run an event every two years.

"That doesn't mean they [NSW government, the event's principal backer] might not re-consider, but who knows?"

An eastern Australian WRC round is just over two hours flying time away from Auckland and Rally New Zealand, which makes these two long-haul events more likely for rotation.

Morrie Chandler, WRC commission president, said: "If you ask the events [Australia and New Zealand], they'd probably say no to rotation. New Zealand is very keen to run annually, they have run for 38 years, but they have to convince the promoter they can do it annually and it's the same here in Australia."

Rally New Zealand recently announced next year's event will return to Auckland after three years in Hamilton - and a source within the event confirmed rotation was something they were hoping to avoid.

"With the way the WRC calendar is currently scheduled, after 2010, the next Rally New Zealand will be in Auckland in 2012," said Chris Carr, chairman of Rally NZ organisers. "However, we are working hard to put New Zealand back onto the WRC calendar on an annual basis."