How the WRC made it home...

Getting to Istanbul for Rally of Turkey, round four of the FIA World Rally Championship, was the easy part. Getting home amid the chaos brought about by the pan-European flight restrictions due to the volcanic ash cloud in Iceland proved to be anything but for the bulk of the WRC contingent.

To make matters worse, the world championship’s top teams were under pressure to make it back to base as quickly as possible in order to begin the painstaking task of preparing their cars in time to fly them to New Zealand, where the series resumes from 6-9 May.

What should have been a straightforward journey home for the truck drivers was complicated by the boat, which transported cars and equipment from Greece to Italy in an attempt to reduce the journey time by road, being delayed leaving port by several hours.

Although the works Citroen squad made it back to France by Tuesday, the factory Ford team, based in northwest England, was not expecting its transporters to return until Friday lunchtime. As a result, its mechanics were braced for working over the weekend to ensure their cars will be ready to be air freighted to Auckland in the middle of next week.

And working over the weekend will be the last thing those mechanics will want to do after enduring a 70-hour coach journey that took them from Turkey to the UK via Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and France.

Throughout the week, stories of epic travel adventures emerged as the WRC community attempted to return home. Those fortunate enough to get flights from Turkey to Greece and then onto Spain - where travel restrictions were not in place - still faced lengthy journeys by road or rail. But with hire car firms charging premium prices and rail services fully booked, a number of people resorted to taking taxis or minibuses to avoid getting stranded in airport lounges.

Ford pair Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen summoned some friends to meet them in Bulgaria and drive them back to their native Finland. Ford technical director Christian Loriaux caught a flight from Istanbul to Nice but then had to resort to driving to Calais and then onward to Ford’s base by road. Pirelli’s team of tyre technicians completed their journey from Turkey to Italy by bus.

Amid fears the staging of Rally New Zealand could be under threat, organisers have been monitoring the situation closely. However, with airlines reporting the majority of their schedules are getting back to normal, fears that the European-based teams won’t be able to make it the Southern Hemisphere have all but subsided.

Event chairman Chris Carr said: “I’m confident that the teams will make it to New Zealand, despite their lengthy journeys home from Turkey. All of our efforts are going to ensure that when the teams do get here, they have the best event possible. We will be ready in Auckland, on 6 May.”