New route design for Telstra Rally Australia.

Changes to the 2002 Telstra Rally Australia's route and itinerary are expected to make the event even more "user friendly", organisers announced today.

The key changes are:

- The first leg on Friday, Nov 1, will now head south to the forest roads around Dwellingup and Harvey,
- The first leg service park will be based in Dwellingup,
- The second leg on Saturday, Nov 2, will head east to the forest roads around Mundaring,
- The second leg service park will be based in Chidlow, east of Mundaring,
- The spectacular York and Muresk special stages make a welcome return.

Telstra Rally Australia Clerk of Course Garry Connelly said he was particularly pleased to bring back the Muresk and York Railway special stages.

"Muresk and York Railway are back by popular demand," Connelly said. "The jumps at Muresk and the open countryside at York Railway are well loved by rally photographers and TV crews and it was as a result of their requests that we brought the stages back."

"And we haven't forgotten the ordinary rally fans either, we have scheduled these spectacular stages for the Saturday of the event so that even more people will be able to get out and enjoy them."

Connelly said the second leg service park would be at Chidlow, 10km east of Mundaring because the Mundaring town-site could no longer accommodate all the top teams.

"We are expecting six WRC teams to compete and Chidlow has a large sports oval that can accommodate everybody," Connelly said.

The President of the Mundaring Shire, Councillor Terry Geraghty, said while he was sorry to see the service park moved from the Mundaring town centre, he was pleased it would remain within the Shire.

"Chidlow looks forward to hosting the event. For a small community like Chidlows, it is very exciting to get involved in an event of this scale," he said. "It is not often that major international events are staged outside Perth."

The first leg service park has been moved from Harvey to Dwellingup in order to bring the event closer to Perth - Dwellingup is just over an hour from the city centre - and to investigate the possibility of it becoming the service park for the Sotico (formerly Bunnings) special stages in 2003.

"Dwellingup is a pretty town which is already a popular day trip destination and I'm sure even more people will come out to see the world rally cars at the service park," Connelly said.

The FIA, the governing body of international motor sport, wants organisers to restrict service parks to two per event. In order to comply in 2003, the Sotico service park may be moved to Dwellingup.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Shire of Murray, Mr Neil Leach, said he was confident Dwellingup would more than meet Telstra Rally Australia's needs.

"We are an active community with a growing tourism industry and we are really looking forward to hosting the teams, media and spectators. Dwellingup has been associated with Telstra Rally Australia for many years and we welcome the opportunity to play a more active role in this world-class event," he said.

Telstra Rally Australia has also been able to retain the hugely popular Langley Park service park.

"More than 15,000 people go to the Langley Park Super Stage on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and for many of them watching the World Rally Cars being serviced is an integral part of the entertainment," Connelly said. "The special viewing platform we built last year for patrons of the corporate hospitality villas also proved to be hugely popular, so we will retain the Langley Park service park for the foreseeable future."

Telstra Rally Australia starts in Perth on Thursday, October 31 and concludes in Perth on Sunday, November 3. It will be the penultimate round of the 14 round FIA World Rally Championship, and up to 80 cars are expected to take part - including six world championship teams - Peugeot, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Ford, Hyundai and, for the first time, the Czech manufacturer Skoda.