Aman Barfull, Vice President of the FIA Rally Commission

(06/11/2010)

Aman Barfull, Director of the Sports Area of the RACC and Clerk of the Course at the RallyRACC has been appointed Vice President of the FIA Rally Commission at the FIA General Assembly held on 5th November in Paris. Barfull thus assumes a post with a strategic meaning for the FIA, and has also been appointed full right member of the WRC Commission that watches over the specific interests of the World Rally Championship.

Chaired by President Jean Todt, the FIA General Assembly marked the end of the annual meetings week, attended by sport and mobility members from around the world. As usual, one of the purposes of the Assembly is to ratify decisions on different topics, including the International Sporting Code and obviously important issues regarding the world of rallying.

This General Assembly approved the first review of Motor Sport Commissions for two decades which now include a new Officials and Volunteers Commission and a Single Seater Commission.
 
The composition of the highest officials of the different Sports Commission of Motor Sports does logically also affect the world of rallying, both as regards the WRC Commission and the Rally Commission, as there has been a complete change of the officials which are going to be in charge of them from now on. Aman Barfull, Director of the Sports Area at the RACC and Clerk of the Course at the RallyRACC has been appointed Vice President of the Rally Commission and he will also form part of the World Rally Championship Commission, as he had already been some years ago.

Barfull will have the task of watching over the FIA Regional Championships which cover large geographic areas of the world, namely Asia-Pacific, Africa, Middle East, Codasur and Europe. The commission will be presided over by Jonathan Ashman from Great Britain, former President of the WTCC Commission.

Aman Barfull: “The most important news is actually that I am back in the WRC Commission as a member, as I already was when the Commission was presided over by Shekhar Mehta and Jacques Regis. The current commission members were the presidents of the different working groups only. This membership will allow us to have direct and permanent contact with the reality of the world championship, which is especially interesting for us. As regards my post as Vice President of the Rally Commission, it was a personal request from President Jean Todt to the Royal Spanish Motor Sport Federation and the RACC. The FIA President wishes to have a direct contribution of the Spanish rally world to provide the regional championships with more attention and control for the future. It is obviously a great honour, as it means that President Todt is asking us to apply our vast experience in the world of rallying through the FIA”.

The new President of the WRC Commission that watches over the specific interests of the World Rally Championship is Jarno Mahonen from Finland, with former British co-driver Robert Reid as Vice President.  As regards the Cross Country Rally Commission, the Presidency is now held by Nasser Kalifa Al Attiyah from Qatar and the Vice Presidency by another former co-driver from Great Britain, Fred Gallagher.

Among other personalities who are now chairing some of the 20 Commissions, there are Michèle Mouton (Women & Motor Sport) and the Spaniards Manuel Vidal (Truck Racing) and Joaquín Verdegay (Volunteers and Officials). The next FIA Annual General Assembly will take place at the same time as the Prize Giving in December 2011.