As many as 36 Turkish crews, two teams from Cyprus and one from Bulgaria will be able to pass through the gravel special stages in two reconnaissance sessions today afternoon and tomorrow morning.
The event then gets underway with a ceremonial start in the centre of the tourist town of Marmaris tomorrow evening, where senior rally officials will be joined by Turkey’s Minister of Youth and Sports Osman Askin Bak, government representatives from the Marmaris and Mugla areas, and other officials.
Turkey’s exciting new rally in the Mugla region will then return to the WRC calendar in September 2018 after a seven-year absence.
Officials will be looking closely at spectator safety, rally timing, road books, security and many other vital aspects of the event for when the world’s finest teams, drivers and thousands of spectators head to Turkey’s spectacular Turquoise Coast in 2018.
To support the event’s Serbian FIA Observer Branislav Pijevic and his three nominated stewards from Romania, Serbia and Turkey, a four-strong FIA delegation will work closely with rally officials to polish the event to the exacting standards required by the FIA and WRC Promoter GmbH.
Former WRC driver Michele Mouton is the WRC’s safety delegate. The Frenchwoman will drive the special stages, assess the safety of the road books and offer advice to route co-ordinators, both before and during the rally, and also spend time looking at potential new stages for 2018.
WRC rally director Jarmo Mahonen will also visit Marmaris to oversee the candidate rally, check on the sporting implementation and get a feel for what the event may look like in September 2018.
Several permanent WRC-accredited media will visit the event to work alongside a 60-strong army of local media, while representatives from several of the major teams are expected to attend to get a feel for the event and to take a look at the stages on offer and potential hotel accommodation for 2018.
Candidate rally action gets underway with a shakedown stage of 4.25km to the west of Marmaris (3.74km from the service park) at Degírmenyani from 15.00hrs tomorrow afternoon.