KEY POINTS:
New Zealand has been confirmed on the calendar for next year's World Rally Championship.
The New Zealand round is scheduled for August 28-31.
New Zealand will be the 11th round of the championship and the fifth round of the production world rally championship.
With the unexpected late withdrawal from the calendar of Australia, the New Zealand rally is now one of only two rounds in the Asia Pacific region along with Japan.
"We are delighted with this news," Rally New Zealand chairman Chris Carr said. "There are an increasing number of countries with massive commercial and government funding to back their campaigns wanting to get into the World Rally Championship.
"The championship draws a worldwide television audience of over 800 million and we are facing considerable pressures from competing countries."
Carr said while New Zealand could not match the dollars from other countries, "we concentrate on producing the best rally for competitors and fans - and our roads are still considered among the very best in the World Rally Championship".
The FIA World Motorsport Council has approved a number of regulation changes for next year with the most significant being the running order which will see the rally leader being the first car on the road on day two and three.
Until now the rally leader on points is first off on day one, and then the start order is reversed for the second and third days.
Rally New Zealand clerk of the course Willard Martin said the change would make for an interesting approach.
"The regulation change for running order will add further tactics to our event. On a dry gravel stage the first car on the road can suffer a disadvantage as they will have to sweep the roads for the following cars," Martin said.
