46 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, the first asphalt rally including mixed gravel stages

(18/05/2010)

The 46th edition of the RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, twelfth round of the 2010 FIA World Rally Championship will be held from 21 to 24 October, being also the penultimate scoring round of the Junior WRC (under 28-year-old drivers) and scoring round of the single-make Fiesta Sport Trophy. For the sixth year in a row, the Spanish round will be raced in the area of Tarragona and the Costa Daurada, with its nerve centre in the city of Salou and the theme park PortAventura. The route has been designed to run through the province of Tarragona, although one special will be entering the province of Lleida.

A route featuring several novelties. The race will include several novelties in the itinerary as a result of the usual efforts made by the RACC in order to provide the Spanish WRC round with as many sports and media attractions as possible year after year, a feature that has made this event to be groundbreaking in several aspects. The RACC looked into the new elements that could be introduced in this edition, using the widest freedom provided by the FIA to organisers this season, in order to let the WRC recover the popularity that rallies had always enjoyed, i.e to include new elements that would increase selectivity and expectation, but always keeping in mind safety and the comfort so much appreciated by participants and spectators in the current location in Tarragona.

The first novelty of this 46th edition is an urban and mixed Shakedown, located nearby Salou, very close to the service park and completely new as regards the concept of the layout, turning it into a mini-compendium of what the race will actually be. The Rally de España intends to continue being an asphalt event, but providing the special element of the mixed layout. During the first Day, the drivers will run three completely new special stages making up a really mixed layout, as two of them will include gravel and asphalt sections and the third will be exclusively on gravel.

Five different stages will complete the rest of the days, three of them identical to the last edition, to be covered twice on Saturday, 23 October, and two that will also be covered twice on Sunday. On that final race day, participants will be covering the longest (42 km) and the shortest (4.1 km) stage, a feature that will be another highlight of the 46th edition, leaving the race open until the very last moment, thus providing it with additional difficulty which will have to be taken into account by participants and with no doubt will be of special interest for spectators.

The itinerary of this 2010 edition of the Rally de España is thus made-up by three race days, including 6 special stages (3 different covered twice), on each of the first two days and 4 specials (2 different covered twice) on the third and last day, making up a total of 16 special stages (354.92 timed kilometres) for a total route of 1,275.78 kilometres.

Favouring show. All of these changes in the itinerary adapt perfectly to the new guidelines proposed by the FIA to organisers with the aim of favouring show and competitiveness. The RACC has made very good use of the possibility to combine different surfaces in the race, designing a rally with a new concept, but still being an asphalt rally that will keep the sporting uncertainty until the last instant.

Change of gravel settings to asphalt settings. The mixed surface - mainly gravel - on the first day will force the teams to start with gravel settings and change them at the end of the day to the usual asphalt specifications, a fact that will also involve huge logistic and technical activity in the PortAventura Service Park, as in the initially planned 45' minutes they will have to change suspensions, brakes and wheels, an image that had never been seen before in the Spanish round. 

RallyRACC still an asphalt rally. This new feature of the Rally de España does not at all mean that there is going to be a change in the type of the race. According to RallyRACC Clerk of the Course and head of the club’s Sport Division, Aman Barfull, “what we want with this edition is to present a race with a different itinerary, with a mixed Shakedown in Salou, offering easy access for spectators and a first day with mixed competition where spectators can watch the evolution of drivers both on gravel and asphalt tracks. Moreover, they will be able to watch the teams working in the forced and quick adaptation of their cars in order to face a different kind of surface, which is nothing else than an exercise included in the dichotomy of rallies as such."

"Despite of this significant feature added in 2010, our rally is and wants to continue being an asphalt rally, however with a major show ingredient for spectators and media, with a change that implies a daring but at the same time new step forward. The Cyprus Rally in 2009 was the first to introduce an asphalt day in a gravel rally. We are doing the contrary, i.e. including gravel stages in an asphalt rally. In Cyprus all cars were fitted with gravel suspensions and wheels throughout the race, while at the RallyRACC these elements will have to be changed at the end of the first Day".

Main dates of the RallyRACC 2010
17 and 18 May - Presentation of the route in Madrid, Barcelona and Tarragona
21 May – Publication of Rally Guide 1 (www.rallyracc.com)
21 August – Publication of the Regulations (www.rallyracc.com)
20 September - Entry period closed
23 September – Publication of Rally Guide 2 (www.rallyracc.com)
21 October – Shakedown and Official Start (Salou)
22 to 24 October – Race days (Salou-PortAventura)