Rally Japan organizers have been fined €150,000 – €100,000 of which is suspended – after an incident where a van entered stage 12 in the wrong direction while it was live, arriving at the start line and directly facing Elfyn Evans waiting to depart.
The bizarre incident took place on the Saturday’s third stage, with a blue Nissan van parking at the stage start control and blocking the road after driving for 520 meters in the wrong direction.
A stewards’ investigation identified a number of failings that contributed to the incident, revealing that the driver of the van managed to breach two other checkpoints prior to entering the live stage.
Explaining how the van was able to enter the stage, the stewards’ report read: “Marshal post five was secured only by tape and Marshals, with no physical barrier in place, such as a vehicle parked across the road. The incident was not immediately communicated to Rally Control by the Marshals officiating the stage, with the first communication coming to the FIA Sporting Delegate in Rally Control via the Team Representative for Competitor No. 33. When the van appeared in front of the Stage Commander, he stopped car No. 33 from starting the stage.”
How did the van enter the stage?
Marshal’s post five of SS12, 520 meters from the start line where the van would eventually meet Evans head-on, was the offending driver’s third attempt to access a live stage.
The stewards report explained that a series of communication failures between parties who had stopped the van’s initial attempts to breach the stage elsewhere led to its eventual ingress onto the live stage: “The vehicle had previously breached two check points surveyed by Security Guards,” it said. “Once in front of marshal post five, the car broke the restriction at that post (520 m after the Start of SS12). The car continued driving 520m in the opposite direction of the Stage before stopping in front of Car No. 33 at the start of the Stage.
“The car’s driver did not follow the marshals’ instructions, refusing to move his vehicle out of the way and therefore the Police were called. The Police arrived at approximately 11:00 hrs and took the driver away.
“Neither the Security Guards nor the Marshal at post five informed the officials at Rally Control.
“The Stewards heard from Mr. Akira Toda, the Police and Gov’t Liaison Officer, who confirmed that unfortunately the two check points surveyed by the Security Guards were assigned to two different companies and there was no communication between them. Therefore, the first opportunity to contact Rally Control was at marshal post five, approximately two kilometres after the driver breached the first check point.”
Officials on the stage itself were also slow to notify rally control that the breach had taken place, with the marshal on post five radioing immediately but the message not being relayed onto rally control swiftly enough.
“The Deputy Clerk of the Course also informed the Stewards that unfortunately the Marshals through SS12 only had an internal radio network,” read the report. “The marshal at post five informed the start control but the person in charge at the start did not inform the Rally Control immediately.
Such was the delay by the start control to relay the van had entered the stage that Elfyn Evans’ competitor representative was the first to make rally control aware of the problem. Television pictures showed Scott Martin taking photos of the van while sat in the co-driver’s seat.
Scott Martin immediately called Toyota which informed rally control of what was occurring
“At that moment car No. 33 was at the Start of SS12 and when the unknown car appeared in front of the crew, the co-driver [Martin] immediately called his team, who informed the FIA Sporting Delegate at Rally Control. This was the first communication to Rally Control of the incident. SS12 was then immediately stopped.
“The Clerk of the Course agreed with the Stewards that the incident occurred was serious and the lack of communications could have contributed to a serious accident.”
What are the consequences?
Firstly, there were immediate decisions made and enacted to avoid a repeat of the van incident. Stewards instructed the Clerk of the Course to implement either a car parked laterally across every access road or water-filled blocks, in a plan agreed with FIA safety delegate Michèle Mouton.
Such was the seriousness of the breach, stewards also laid out a caveat to their instruction: if this wasn’t implemented immediately and another vehicle was to breach the stage, the rally would be called off entirely on the spot.
The stewards’ report read: “The Stewards informed the Clerk of the Course that under the authority provided to them by Article 11.9.3.r of the 2024 FIA International Sporting Code, they would immediately and permanently stop the Competition should the contingency plan be compromised or breached or should there be any deviation from the contingency plan agreed with the FIA Safety Delegate.”
The organizers were deemed to have not created a strong enough safety plan
Later in the report, there was a damning indictment that those measures had not been implemented from the outset of rally planning: “The Stewards consider that it would be expected that these measures should have been put in place as part of the event Safety Plan.”
A total fine of €150,000 was handed to the rally organizers for the “failure to take reasonable measures, thus resulting in an unsafe situation,” citing article 12.2.1.h of the 2024 FIA International Sporting Code. Of that amount, €100,000 is suspended, pending two conditions.
Firstly, the rally must first organize a full marshals’ training exercise on road surveillance and communication, which will be implemented in cooperation with the FIA Task Force, the FIA Safety Department and the Japan Automobile Federation ahead of Japan’s WRC outing in 2025. Secondly, if an incident that breaches the same article of the International Sporting Code happens in 2025, the additional fine will be triggered.
Japan’s prior track record with incidents of poor communication leading to critical safety failures was highlighted as a key reason behind the hefty size of the fine by the stewards.
“This issue cannot be considered as an isolated occurrence,” read the stewards’ report. “In 2022 there was a similar case where a vehicle had entered a special stage from an unmarshalled junction where the taping was missing and in 2023 there was a similar case of lack of communication between the Zero Car and Rally Control, resulting in the first competition car on the stage coming across the Zero Car parked in the middle of the stage.
“The Stewards concluded that the Organisers were in breach of Art. 12.2.1.h of the 2024 FIA International Sporting Code and in view of the severity of the offence a fine was imposed on the Organisers. An additional fine was imposed on the Organisers with suspension of sentence in order to encourage the continuous improvement on marshals training with a specific focus on safety.”
