No Control Tyre for Australian Rally Championship in 2009

The Australian Rally Championship will be raced without a control tyre in 2009. The announcement that the upcoming season wouldn’t see the introduction of such a measure was made on December 6, following ongoing consultation between the Australian Rally Commission (ARCom) and tyre manufacturers during the course of 2008. The ARCom eventually decided the overall interests of the championship would be best served by continuing to work with the tyre companies throughout 2009 to ensure tyre parity between Group N and the lighter Super 2000 vehicles. The option remains, however, for the introduction of a control tyre at a later time.

“Implementing changes to the ARC in 2009 would not provide competitors and tyre manufacturers with enough opportunity to test different compounds, constructions and tread types to find a single tyre specification that is suitable for both Group N and Super 2000 vehicles,” said ARCom chairman Colin Trinder.

“With the World Rally Championship using a Pirelli control tyre and around a dozen other national rally championships around the world using Pirelli, we would like to extend into the Australian Rally Championship,” commented Simon Pool, Pirelli’s Australian technical director. “With some development we believe this would help make the ARC stronger; at this stage we just see it as a matter of developing an even balance between S2000 and Group N.”