Motorsport New Zealand is stuck with having the world rally championship and V8 Supercars on successive weekends in April.
MNZ president Ross Kennedy said it was not ideal, but the position was not negotiable in a meeting he had in Wellington yesterday with supercar company chief executive Wayne Cattach and James O'Brien from promoters IMG.
The rally will be staged on April 8-10 in Greater Auckland, and the Australian V8 supercar company was not prepared to budge from its April 15-17 dates at Pukekohe.
"We preferred to see a greater separation of the dates but it wasn't on," Kennedy said. "It was obvious we'd lose the V8s next year if we could not run them from April 15-17. That was not a viable option. "
Motorsport NZ argued that with many of the same people required to run both events, there was a risk of not having enough quality marshals.
Kennedy said the problem of consecutive weekend events was likely to continue in 2006 and 2007, with MNZ having signed a three-year deal to host the rally in April.
But he was heartened that Cattach had given a commitment that the V8s would race in New Zealand until 2014.
- NZPA
Motorsport: Rally and V8 races set for successive weekends
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