© JEFFREY GAENS
On Friday, the promoter of the World Rally Championship announced the calendar for next year. The new generation of rally cars will start in thirteen races. That’s one more than this year. The Ypres Rally will no longer be part of the World Cup for the time being next year. Next year, the World Rally Championship will celebrate its 50th anniversary.
vvaSource: BELGIAN
As tradition has it, the rally season now begins with the Monte Carlo. After a year of absence, the Swedish rally is back on the calendar, to the detriment of the Arctic Rally, which was part of the World Cup rally for the first time this year. The Croatia rally is here to stay and will be held at the end of April. It is striking that there is a break of just under eight weeks between the rally of Sweden at the end of February and the rally of Croatia at the end of April.
Via Portugal at the end of May it will go to Sardinia and then back to Kenya for the challenging Safari rally. The Estonia rally will be held in mid-July for the third year in a row. Finland will return to its familiar place at the beginning of August. A rally is also planned at the end of August, but it is not yet known where that round will take place.
The rally of Greece will be held at the beginning of September, followed by the long trip to New Zealand. For the first time since 2009, this rally is again part of the World Cup rally. At the end of October there is the rally of Spain to eventually organize the final of the World Cup in Japan. If COVID-19 does not throw a spanner in the works next year, there will be battles on four continents: Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania.
Provisional calendar for 2022:
January 20-23: Monte Carlo
February 24-27: Sweden
April 21-24: Croatia
May 19-22: Portugal
June 2-5: Italy
June 23-26: Kenya
July 14-17: Estonia
August 4-7: Finland
August 18-21: to be confirmed
September 8-11: Greece
September 29-October 2: New Zealand
October 20-23: Spain
November 10-13: Japan
(Belgian)