Rally Japan Confirms Route Changes for 2010

Rally Japan will return to the World Rally Championship calendar for the 2010 campaign, after two years of absence – due to FIA's rotational system in the series. However, the route on which the WRC drivers will battle for a championship win in mid September will not be the same, as the Yuparo stage has been scrapped completely from the 2010 event.

The rally fans might remember that the Yuparo route was the stage of a very serious accident back in the 2008 Rally Japan, when Francois Duval crashed heavily his Stobart-prepared Ford Focus, leaving co-driver Patrick Pivato seriously injured.

As a matter of fact, the Frenchman never returned to rallying after the accident. He was hospitalized with leg and pelvic injuries at the time, but was fortunate enough to recover without any major physical traumas.

Talking about this year's itinerary in Rally Japan, clerk of the course Dimar Krivtsov insisted the changes were not made necessarily because of safety issues, but in order to avoid uncomfortable associations with the rally for both the fans and Ford officials.

“We taken out the stage where Duval had his unfortunate accident. We're using another one instead. It's not because the stage was unsafe, it was safe - it passed the FIA's scrutiny, but we just don't want people to have any negative associations with the rally and for the Ford guys it wouldn't be very comfortable. It's a normal thing to do,” said Krivtsov.

Other route changes have not been announced by the rally organizers. This year's Rally Japan is scheduled September 10 thru 12, and will count for the 10th event of the 2010 campaign.