query: sport rally japan
supports: The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially known as the (French: Les "XIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver"), were a winter multi-sport event which was held from February 3 to February 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaid, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympics to be held outside Europe and North America, and only the third game (summer or winter) held outside those regions over all, after Melbourne (1956 Summer Olympics) and Tokyo (1964 Summer Olympics). Rally Japan (  ) is a rally competition held in Hokkaid , Japan . The event has been part of the FIA World Rally Championship since its introduction during the 2004 season . From 2004 to 2007 , the event was held on the twisty and narrow gravel roads of the Tokachi region near Obihiro . For the 2008 season , the event was moved to the region close to Sapporo , Hokkaid 's main city . Rally Japan was not held in 2009 , but returned in 2010 . Sapporo is known outside Japan for having hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics, the first ever held in Asia, and for the city's annual "Yuki Matsuri", internationally referred to as the Sapporo Snow Festival, which draws more than 2 million tourists from around the world. The city is also home to Sapporo Brewery and the white chocolate biscuits called . Rallying is a form of motorsport that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars. It is distinguished by running not on a circuit, but instead in a point-to-point format in which participants and their co-drivers drive between set control points (special stages), leaving at regular intervals from one or more start points. Rallies may be won by pure speed within the stages or alternatively by driving to a predetermined ideal journey time within the stages. The World Rally Championship (WRC) is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13 three-day events driven on surfaces ranging from gravel and tarmac to snow and ice. Each rally is split into 1525 special stages which are run against the clock on closed roads.
candidates: motorsport rally rallying sport world rally championship
answer: motorsport