LATVIA’S HIGH-SPEED RALLY GETS WRC PROMOTION
One of the European championship’s best rounds joins World championship for 2024
Latvia’s elevation to the World Rally Championship for 2024 has been described as a “dream come true moment” by the man who made it all possible.
Raimonds Strokss, a former driver, brought international rallying to his country in 2013 when the cities of Liepaja and Ventspils joined forces to host what was then round two of the European championship.
Under Strokss’ stewardship, the rally has been ever-present in the ERC since then and is the first European championship event to be handed a step up to the global stage by WRC Promoter, which promotes both series.
“This is a dream come true moment,” said Strokss, whose RA Events organisation previously promoted the Riga World Rallycross round. “Our work that started many years ago has finally concluded with a clear pathway for Latvia to host a WRC event in 2024.
“For RA Events as an organiser, this is a tremendous milestone that carries huge responsibility with it. But we have such reliable partners in the Latvian government, our rally city Liepaja, our capital city Riga, our general sponsor Tet – plus many more. Behind them there is an even broader team of enthusiastic people, with whom we can pull this off and are ready to tackle all the challenges that lay ahead of us.”
Peter Thul, WRC Promoter’s senior director of sport, said: “It has always been our goal to keep at least one slot in the WRC calendar available to enable an event to rotate from the ERC to the WRC. Rally Latvia becoming the first to be granted this slot is a clear recognition of its sporting and promotional excellence, and the commitment of the Latvian government. This decision [also] highlights the strategic importance of the Baltic regions for WRC.”
Rally Latvia is set to start in the capital Riga when it joins the WRC in 2024 with high-speed gravel stages taking place in the regions of Talsi, Tukums, Kuldiga, Dienvidkurzeme towards the Baltic coast to the west of the country.
A 2024 calendar date has yet to be set but a July slot has been rumoured, possibly at the expense of Rally Estonia, which is understood to be out of contract with WRC Promoter at the end of 2023.
Although he now has a vacancy to fill on next year’s ERC calendar, European championship boss Iain Campbell welcomed Rally Liepaja’s promotion to the WRC as Rally Latvia.
“It’s fantastic to see Rally Liepaja make the move to the WRC,” said Campbell, the former Rally GB clerk of the course. “This is a clear indication that the ERC is not only a proving ground for drivers and co-drivers, but also for events looking to step up to the highest level.”