Preparations are underway for the 2008 Cyprus Rally, which takes place next month, as the event seeks to secure its return to the World Rally Championship next season.
The event, featuring 228km of special stages, will again be based in the exuberant south coast town of Limassol, where a ceremonial start will be held at 20.00 on Friday 16 May, alongside the famous palm-lined promenade.
The rally route, looping through the pine-clad Troodos mountains, has again been revamped for this season and will feature a number of new stages, with the
FIA watching on with a view to Rally Cyprus returning to the World Rally Championship calendar for 2009. It currently holds a provisional date of March next year on the draft calendar and is due to be the third round of the new campaign.
"The new route will incorporate old tracks, which have been kept in fine condition through re-grading operations and regular maintenance, and the new ones designed and constructed this year,” clerk of the course Takis Kyriakides said. “As a result of the new work, it will feature some new, very long and fascinating special stages through the mountains.
"Much work has gone into the preparation and Cyprus Rally 2008 will follow in the footsteps of its predecessors as an event certain to be memorable for motorsport fans, many of whom travel thousands of miles to witness the spectacle.
"We are confident that the work we have undertaken on the route, over many months and at great expense, will combine with the familiar fluent running of the rally, and will result is the Cyprus Rally regaining a WRC place next year."
