Rally Japan confirms 50 km monster test.

The organisers of the Rally Japan have announced the creation of a monster stage for this year's event, after combining the Kunneywa and Niueo tests, which were run separately in 2004.

As such the Kunneywa-Niueo test will be 50 kilometres in length - one of the longest stages in the WRC.

"Running them as one will enable us to decrease the overall leg time significantly," read a statement from the organisers. "This reduction is of vital importance, given that this year the Rally Japan will be run almost one month later and will therefore have less daylight hours."

Kunneywa-Niueo will be conducted twice during the opening day and accounts for almost two-thirds of that leg's competitive distance. As such, drivers will no doubt be torn between using both opportunities to build a rally-winning lead in a single stage and the need to conserve their machinery. Fortunately, Rally Japan's roads are not hard on tyres.

In contrast to leg one's marathon test, leg 2 will feature twelve mainly short stages. The longest, at 16kms, is the new stage, Menan. It twists and turns through a river gorge and should provide drivers with their stiffest challenge of the day.

The final leg returns to last year's high-speed stages northwest of Obihiro. These are fast and flowing, though with little room for error as Francois Duval discovered on the penultimate Panke-Nikorpet stage in 2004.

The popular Satsunai Super Special Stage is largely unchanged from 2004 and again will be run at the conclusion of legs 1 and 2 and in the middle of Leg 3.

Rally Japan, round 13 of the WRC, runs from September 29 until October 2.