The Federation of International Motor Sport (FIA) has made a U-turn on the new African Rally Championship (ARC) point scoring system.

The new system, which was introduced in August last year, required all registered ARC drivers to finish in the top ten positions to be eligible to score points.

However, according to the latest reports, the body has now decided to revert to the old scoring system, for this season. The new scoring had been introduced at the start of the year.

Eric Nzamwita, the Rwanda Automobile Club (RAC) Course Clerk and navigator for ARC registered driver Fitidis Christakis, confirmed FIA’s U-turn in a short message. "It’s true the scoring system is back to the old system.”

Muna Singh, a FIA-Africa member, sent out an email informing registered drivers about the new development. "FIA have awarded points based on the old system (only registered crews), they did not make it clear enough and so we have to use this system through the year,” he said.

"The new scoring system was only suggested during the CACM meeting last year, but it was yet to be included in the FIA-ARC rules and regulations,” he added.

The new scoring system will now be put on hold until 20018 when it has been incorporated in the FIA rules and regulations.

The move means the ten crews that completed the first two rounds; Ivory Coast (Rally Bandama) and Kenya (Safari Rally) – in February and March – qualify for ARC points.

Kenya’s Carlo Tundo, who won the Safari Rally last month, leads the ARC standing with 25 points; Jaspreet Chatthe (Ivory Coast) is in second with 18 points, while Manvir Baryan (Kenya) and Burundi’s Valery Bukera are 3rd and 4th with 15 and 18 points, respectively.

Two ARC rounds have already been completed and the third round goes to South Africa for the Sasol Rally South Africa on April 28-29.