Worrying Reports from Mallorca

Rumours emanating from Rally Isla Mallorca are troubling. After the cancellation of a number of stages due to bad weather, no one expected that further stages would be cancelled for political reasons. One competitor told us, “There is a burgeoning anti rally movement (German Greens!) on the Island. With elections next week it looks like one party was trying to garner some extra support by having the event cancelled.” Fortunately, organiser Toni Dezcallar was able to avoid the worst, but a night stage that was to run on a perfectly viable road was cancelled by authorities at the last minute.

About the incident, local driver and fourth place finisher, Nadal Galiana wrote a Facebook post, saying, “As for the Rally this year it has been very difficult for Toni Dezcallar who has suffered first and foremost the consequences of the bad weather leading to cancellations of sections such as Sa Calobra which is the heart of the rally and then Pollensa-Lluc and Lluc-Soller. What no one expected was the cancellation of the Estellencs-Andratx night stage due to a very unfortunate political decision despite having all the positive permissions from the authorities. Despite everything Toni found alternatives and saved the event with total dignity, reorganising in less than 24 hours things that would normally take weeks, thank you Toni for not slowing down and cheers for the next edition.”