Dear Rally Friends,

On behalf of TOSFED and as the Clerk of the Course, it is a great pleasure to welcome you all once again, as competitors and guests, to Istanbul, glorious city of Turkey.

After twelve years, Fiat Rally, one of the most demanding rounds of the European Rally Championship, is returning back to gravel stages of Istanbul. This year’s rally will also be the first European round of the brand new series, called Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

As this rally will be an almost brand new event, competitors and spectators will withness exciting new features. Rally HQ will be recently opened Bulent Ecevit Kartal Cultural Center. Service Park, which is on the coastal road, will be located in Pendik Sabit Pazar Area.

Ceremonial start of the rally will take place on Friday, 11 May 2007 in famous Sultanahmet Square. The competitors will also have a chance to enjoy Bosphorus crossing by specially arranged ferry boat, while going to and return from the Ceremonial Start. After returning to Service Park, crews will compete in Fiat SSS, surface of which is tarmac.

On the second day of the event, competitors will tackle demanding gravel stages of Sile region of Istanbul. The final stage of the day will be Fiat SSS again, which is next to Service Park.

On Sunday, drivers will head to Kocaeli, neighbour city of Istanbul for completely different stages. After all these stages, podium ceremony and champaign show will take place in front of Rally HQ.

Thanks to Eurosport’s involvement and coverage of the rally, which is up to 8 hours, we are expecting audience figures to be raised significantly.

We would like to once again thank you for your participation. We are eagerly waiting for your impressions and comments, which will be useful in improving our future events.

We all hope that this will be an enjoyable and exciting rally and wish good luck to all of us.

Let’s meet in gorgeous Istanbul and feel the adrenaline of both ERC and IRC at the same time.

Sincerely,
Metin Çeker
Clerk of the Course