Professional motor sport in Lower Bavaria? Not everyone is enthusiastic about the idea. There is a protest against a planned World Championship race.
Passau (dpa / lby) - The World Rally Championship should also take place in Germany in 2023 with one run. The world automobile association Fia has planned a race in the country triangle of the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany for the end of October - the finish line should be in Passau. There is resistance to the motorsport event. Green Party politician Eike Hallitzky thinks the plans are "not up to date". He hopes to be able to prevent the rally race after all.
As early as October, his party had submitted an emergency motion for a resolution to the Passau district council, with which the district council should have spoken out against holding a World Cup race. But, says Hallitzky, District Administrator Raimund Kneidinger had his lawyer deny the urgency of the application. "The majority of the district council followed his explanation docilely and without asking." Hallitzky speaks of the jubilation about the World Rally Championship in Passau's district office and town hall, and that it "fell out of time in an almost absurd way".
Such a race contradicts the sustainability strategy of the district and its role model function. Hallitzky warns that rising energy prices and energy shortages have hit many people and companies hard, sometimes even existentially. That's why it's "the damned duty of the district administrator and the district council" to promote saving fossil fuels instead of a symbolic waste like in a rally - even if hybrid vehicles are used. In addition, the race usually means damage to trees along the route and noise and road closures for citizens.
District Administrator Kneidinger (CSU) informed the German Press Agency: that the ADAC Three-City Rally has shown since 1963 how sport can overcome borders. With this people-unifying three-country approach, this could be shown in the region "even as part of a World Rally Championship run".
According to the district administrator, rallying has a long tradition in the district of Passau. "Due to the sustainable approach of this concept, we believe that it is still justified." Motorsport is also a source of ideas and a driver for innovations. In motorsport, new forms of drive are being used and experience is being gained with regard to the practical suitability of new technologies.
The implementation of the World Cup run - in addition to the Passau district, the Freyung-Grafenau district would also be involved - should be on the agenda in one of the next district council meetings, Green politician Hallitzky demands. According to a spokesman for the district office, this is also planned.
Hallitzky is counting on the district councils to rethink so that the run could possibly be canceled. Even those who would have watched the Dakar Rally enthusiastically in the past "must have understood long ago: We live in different times today!". But there is still "a great love of many men for howling engines".
