World Rally: Australian round under threat

The Australian round of the World Rally Championship could be removed from the calendar because of a dispute between the event’s commercial and sporting departments.

The FIA, world motorsport’s governing body, have warned the event on September 5-9 could be dropped because of the dispute.

FAI president Max Mosley revealed the event could be cancelled unless a dispute between between the rally’s owners, the Western Australia Tourism Commission, and the officials who run the race.

“The difficulty is that this is not a commercial problem,” Mosley told www.autosport.com.

“We know that there appears to be a real problem between the sporting and commercial people on Rally Australia.”