World Rally Championship

Rally Cyprus day 1 (2009x8)

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Returning to the WRC after a two year absence, Rally Cyprus has undergone a serious makeover. The location is blazing a trail in 2009 as the only event in the season to try a mixed surface format. Organisers say they have already been contacted by other events anxious to find out how it will work. If all goes well, we can expect more mixed-surface events in the future. Cyprus is the first of four rallies this year eligible for the WRC, J-WRC and P-WRC competitions. Once purely a hot, dusty and rough gravel rally - similar in character to the Acropolis Rally of Greece - Cyprus is now the only the rally of the year to feature a mixture of road surfaces. Day one will be contested on asphalt roads, while days two and three will continue to offer the sort of challenging gravel stages for which the event is renowned.