LATVIA HAS A “REAL” CHANCE OF INCLUSION ON 2021 WRC LINE-UP
Latvia’s hopes of hosting a round of the World Rally Championship round this year appear to have increased.
Raimonds Strokss, the boss of Rally Liepaja, one of six WRC reserve events for 2021, told the Go4Speed.lv Sports Studio podcast that Latvia’s chances are “even more real than ever”.
It follows suggestions in the Baltic state that its flagship rally is being readied as back up for the Safari Rally should the Kenyan event not go ahead in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic. However, it would stick to its planned July 1-3 date, rather than moving a week earlier to fill the Safari’s slot, when it would combine with the existing European Rally Championship round.
Strokss explained that he’s in regular contact with WRC Promoter, adding: “WRC in Latvia is not over and is open. In fact, maybe even more real than ever.”
The ex-driver, who created Rally Liepaja from scratch as a new ERC round in 2013, told Motorsport News last August that his event was “really close” to joining the World championship as a combined event with the ERC in 2020.
“We have an extremely good relationship with the WRC organiser and the fact that we are on the official list as a backup is a good sign,” said Strokss. “Working on the ERC rally, we are building these two ERC rally days so that if we come to the WRC, then these two days are ready for us, and we have to build the third day for the WRC.
“Last year, when the opportunity arose that we could host the WRC, we would have 30 days to build a new rally. If we are given the opportunity now, we will be able to do it better, more adequately.
“At that time, we had a Covid protocol for the ERC rally, which we had to go through. It was a good school, and now we are ready for that situation.”
If Rally Liepaja did land an early July date it would be the first in a trio of high-speed gravel events taking place during a six-week window. Rally Estonia is set to follow two weeks later with Rally Finland scheduled two weeks after that.
However, preparations for the first WRC-counting Safari Rally since 2002 continued last week when the layout for the service park in
Naivasha was approved during a site visit overseen by FIA steward and former Rally GB clerk of the course Iain Campbell.