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The Middle
East Championship is down to seven events with the cancellation
of the UAE International Rally. The proposed date for the
event had changed to March, with Bahrain moving forward to
January. Now it is out of the calendar altogether.
The reasons
cited for the cancellation are that the Government has organised
a major conference and there are no hotel rooms available,
local tensions arising from the possibility of a middle east
conflict, and the unavailability of any sponsorship income
for the event.
New
Rally Car Categories
The FIA
World Council confirmed that new categories of rally cars
will be eligible in 2004. A "second level" specification
of World rally Cars, with lower performance than current machinery
(and presumably lower cost) will be eligible from the beginning
of 2004. The specification will be announced in April 2003.
For FIA
Regional Rally Championships a further four wheel drive category
will be eligible. This will bring together production vehicles
with a minimum run of 1000 production units with 2 litre turbo
engines, to be fitted with 32mm restrictor, and production
vehicles of 2 litres normally aspirated produced in a run
of 2500 units.
The tyre
marking procedures used in the WRC will also be applied in
Regional Rally Championship from the beginning of next season.
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