Planning and organising Rally Norway can be compared to the winter Olympics at Lillehammer. A professional core team and some 4,500 volunteers are preparing to host the spectators. Managing director Even Wiger (the photo) and everyone at Rally Norway is responding to the pressure to ensure success.

World record in WRC preparations

Almost certainly no organiser ever has had less time to prepare a WRC round than Rally Norway. The pressure is increasing every day but simultaneously more and more pieces are falling in place and the team is confident of success.

Rally Norway Managing Director Even Wiger has just been to Finland for the Finnish round of World Rally Championship (WRC). He headed a high-powered Norwegian delegation representing the entire organisation that is planning the WRC round in Norway: 15–18 February 2006. Some twenty employees, volunteers, the authorities and business partners spent day and night experiencing the Neste Oil Rally Finland, listening and learning. Special stages were driven and camping places visited to see as much as possible of the sports event and the numerous lively programmes attached to it.

– In the middle of the night we went far into the forest and kilometres away from civilisation to see a camping place with 500 campers, 1,500 cars, bonfires, tents and parties and we experienced a fantastic atmosphere. That was overwhelming, Even Wiger says.

In seven months the entire circus is coming to Norway. Although camping in the middle of the winter is not very likely, we have to be prepared to host hordes of spectators.

– What is the biggest challenge?
– At very short notice we have to develop from a candidate event to a full scale WRC round. Technically the candidate event was very good and the number of visitors acceptable. As a WRC event, the rush of spectators will be on a completely different scale and many will be foreigners. A full WRC round is so big that the rally audience in Norway has never seen anything comparable, Wiger says.

– What is the most important aspect of a world rally competition?
– Compared with a national or European championship, for me a WRC round is enormous. It adds a new dimension to Norwegian rally sport. A huge number of manufacturer teams will be participating and they are demanding. These teams are very professional and will not put up with second-rate solutions. Everything has to be near perfect. On top of this, a large number of international media will be present. We have to handle languages, international sports regulations, national legal aspects, transportation, hospitality and many other things in the very best way.

– What kind of people are needed to organise and produce the event?
– It is a combination of a professional core team and thousands of volunteers. In that sense we can compare ourselves to the 1994 Olympic Games at Lillehammer. We will need about 4,500 volunteers to accomplish a successful WRC round, managing director Even Wiger in Rally Norway says.