NZ BACK ON THE WRC CALENDAR!

After a seven-year absence, despite the efforts of the long-suffering rallying community, Rally New Zealand will finally return to the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2020! It’s the culmination of years of work to see the top tier of rallying return to our shores, and, while we’ve been snubbed more than a few years in a row, we can finally celebrate.

Details are still scarce, but we do know two things: when and where. Auckland is set to be the host for the rally over 3– 6 September 2020. It will be the 10th round of the WRC season, following Rally Finland and ahead of Rally Turkey.

With New Zealand’s return, alongside rallies in Japan, ending a 10-year hiatus, and Kenya, the first time that a rally will have taken place in Africa since 2002, next year’s season will also mark the first time rallies have been held across six continents.

“It’s no secret we wanted to further globalize the series by incorporating more events outside Europe, and we’ve achieved that next year with this exciting new-look calendar,” said Oliver Ciesla, managing director of WRC Promoter. “New Zealand requires no introduction. It has a long and successful WRC history, and the return of its curving billiard-table-smooth special stages near Auckland will be one of the year’s highlights … This is the most varied WRC calendar ever in terms of geographic locations, visiting six of the world’s seven continents.”

The 2020 FIA WRC will kick off in Monte Carlo over 23–26 January 2020 and see Japan play host to the final in November.