The FIA has confirmed an investigation into the tow truck and car which drove onto a live Rally Portugal stage earlier this month.
World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans caught the tow truck on the second pass of the Arganil test, while a second civilian car also entered the stage and was caught by Yohan Rossel minutes later. During the rally, the organizer of the Matosinhos-based event Automóvel Club de Portugal (ACP), was handed a suspended €15,000 fine by the event stewards.
Further sanctions are now considered likely. The FIA told DirtFish: “Following the unauthorised entry of non-competition vehicles onto SS7 of Vodafone Rally de Portugal, the FIA Safety Delegate reported safety concerns regarding the event.
“As a result of this report, the FIA Closed Road Commission will conduct a formal review of the incident. The review will assess the control procedures in place, the communication protocols followed during the event, and the measures required of the organiser to prevent any recurrence.
“The FIA Closed Road Commission will present its findings at its next meeting in June, where it will make a recommendation on whether a Yellow Card should be applied to the organisers.”
Evans said the seventh-stage incident demonstrated a “clear failure.” Fortunately for the Welshman, the truck’s dust offered some warning of a vehicle in the road ahead.
“I was trying to work out what was going on,” Evans told DirtFish. “My first thought was that the course (zero) car had an issue, was I catching it? The dust was so thick, I couldn’t see anything… and then I saw the truck.
Evans wasn't the only one affected – Yohan Rossel also caught a Mercedes car a few hundred meters ahead of where Evans had encountered the tow truck
“I don’t know exactly what happened, but two vehicles coming into the stages – it’s not one car, it’s two. Like I said, I don’t know what happened, but this is a clear failure in the system, or maybe the lack of a system.”
While the application of a yellow card from the FIA would put Rally Portugal on a warning ahead of next year’s event – with any further safety-related incidents potentially costing the ACP its place on the world championship calendar – it also means the deployment of the governing body’s Rally Safety Task Force.
Access to the FIA’s expert team offers the opportunity to improve procedures and learn from best practice. Japan and Chile have worked and completed further training with the Rally Safety Task Force after being issued yellow cards of their own.
