Do you have ambitions as a rally driver – then there is good news in the making with the announcement Motorsport South Africa (MSA) is participating in FIA Rally Star.

The programme offers one of the biggest prizes ever in motor sport, so quite apart from the pleasure of participation in the initial challenges, the potential to take part in the national finals and, for the selected drivers, the chance to participate in the Continental Final, the winner of the Continental Final will enjoy participation in an ongoing programme that could kickstart an international rally career.

This would include a training season in 2022 that includes participation in six European rallies and could extend to participation in the Junior WRC in 2023 and 2024 and ultimately for the winner of the 2024 Junior WRC a fully funded WRC2 drive in the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship.

The access channels comprise participation in the Race at Home programme, which will be accessible to anyone with the WRC 9 game on a variety of different platforms.  MSA will also be organising Digital challenges using MSA’s Playseat simulators, the dates and venues for which will be communicated in due course.

Similarly, MSA plans to hold five Slalom challenges (similar to a car gymkhana), two of which are intended to take place in Gauteng, as well as one in each of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape.  The fourth access channel is aimed specifically at development and will be based on rental karting. From these four channels, MSA plans to select 32 finalists to participate in the national selection event, at which competitors will be selected to represent South Africa at the Continental Final.

South Africa’s participation in this programme, the organisation of the various challenges and the national final has been generously funded by a grant from the FIA Sport Grant programme managed by the FIA.

The programme is open to all interested individuals who were at least 17 years old, but not older than 26, on  January 01, 2021. The programme also has a specific focus on gender and racial diversity.

The African Continental Final is planned for December 2021 and MSA has submitted a bid to the FIA to be considered to host this event. Rwanda is the only other African country that has submitted a bid.  The FIA has yet to award the Continental Finals.

To participate in the Race at Home challenges, participants will need to have WRC 9 on any of the platforms for which it has been released, as well as the specific FIA Rally Star downloadable content (DLC) which will be released shortly before the first digital challenge which is scheduled to start on February 13. Make sure that you have downloaded all available updates to WRC 9 so that you are ready to download the DLC as soon as it becomes available.

So, head on over to www.fiarallystar.com to find out how you can participate in this exciting programme and #BeTheNextOne.

Further announcements and communications in regard to MSA’s participation in this programme will follow from time to time, the next of which being planned for the beginning of February to coincide with the opening of entries for the first of the Race at Home challenges