With his round of the European Rally Championship finishing yesterday, Rally Estonia director Urmo Aava is already looking forward to the event’s World Rally Championship return next year.
The Tartu-based event has an agreement with WRC Promoter which means alternating between the two series. Latvia will take Estonia’s calendar slot next year.
“Of course, it would be nice to be in the WRC all of the time,” Aava told DirtFish, “but there are genuine benefits to running in the ERC as well – it gives us a moment to innovate and to build on what we’re doing in the WRC without maybe so much of the pressure.
“It is also lightening the financial burden on the government to invest every year in a WRC round. For me, the perfect solution would be for us to do two years in WRC then one year in ERC and keep rotating in this way.”
The onset of new, well-funded rallies coming into the series in the shape of Saudi Arabia and Paraguay doesn’t worry Aava – he sees it as a positive for the wider championship.
“I think it’s excellent news to see that Saudi has a contract for 10 years,” he said. “This is only going to bring more investment and more interest for the championship – it’s the same for America or Canada coming.
“If we could get these places, it means more people are exposed to the sport and maybe it’s going to bring new manufacturers in. If we make the whole WRC cake bigger then everybody is going to enjoy a bigger slice of that cake.”
