The upcoming season will begin in the Azores Islands from March 21 to 23, followed by an event in the Canary Islands from May 2 to 4. After these two island events, the FIAERC will return to continental Europe, with Rally Liepāja taking place from May 24 to 26. The Latvian round will be followed by rallies in Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, and Cyprus. This year, the crews will no longer tackle Rally Acropolis in Greece. Instead, there will be a new event – Rally Hungary – that will be included in the FIAERC calendar for the first time, taking place from November 1 to 3.
“Let me put it like this – finally, it has happened! From the very first discussion about being part of the European Championship, we were silently hoping to host Rally Liepāja in the summer – a time when we can use the most challenging and exciting roads. We are thrilled to welcome FIAERC Junior competitors next year, making sure that we will see not only the experienced top drivers, but the up-and-coming talents, whom we will talk about in the next few years. Even though you can never predict the weather, I believe that after the cold winters and rainy autumn events, all the spectators will be very happy to hear that the event will now take place during the warm season.
Looking from the organizer’s perspective, having the event in the spring will let us add a few new things that were just not possible before. I hope that we will be able to fulfil our plans and Rally Liepāja will surprise everyone – being remembered as a beautiful and unforgettable event by all spectators and the millions of TV viewers!
At the moment, 2019 is the final year of our contract with Eurosport Events for organizing a FIAERC round in Latvia. With that in mind, we will do our best to make sure that our partners trust us with organizing such important international motorsports events in the future as well!” says RA Events and Rally Liepāja director Raimonds Strokšs.
“I am thrilled that the provisional 2019 calendar for the FIA European Rally Championship consists of eight events – a number that has received positive reviews from competitors this year. We have also managed to create a balanced calendar both in terms of time, with events separated by three to six weeks, and in terms of the surfaces – there will be four asphalt and four gravel events,” says FIAERC coordinator Jean Baptiste-Ley.
FIA European Rally Championship round Rally Liepāja is possible thanks to the support by the Latvian government and rally city of Liepāja. We would like to thank our sponsor Neste, as well as the Latvian Automobile Federation. Rally Liepāja is organized by RA Events and Speed Festival Kurzeme.
2019 FIA European Rally Championship calendar*:
AZORES AIRLINES RALLY – PORTUGAL – March 21-23
RALLY ISLAS CANARIAS – SPAIN – May 2-4
RALLY LIEPĀJA – LATVIA – May 24-26
RALLY POLAND – POLAND – June 28-30
RALLY DI ROMA CAPITALE – ITALY – July 19-21
BARUM CZECH RALLY ZLIN – CZECH REPUBLIC – August 16-18
CYPRUS RALLY – CYPRUS – September 27-29
RALLY HUNGARY – HUNGARY – November 1-3
2019 FIA ERC Junior championship calendar*:
AZORES AIRLINES RALLY – PORTUGAL – March 21-23
RALLY ISLAS CANARIAS – SPAIN – May 2-4
RALLY LIEPĀJA – LATVIA – May 24-26
RALLY POLAND – POLAND – June 28-30
RALLY DI ROMA CAPITALE – ITALY – July 19-21
BARUM CZECH RALLY ZLIN – CZECH REPUBLIC – August 16-18
*calendar will be approved on December 5, 2018 in the FIA World Motor Sport Council
All information and news about Rally Liepāja are available on the official website at www.lvrally.com, as well as on social media - Twitter @LVRally, Facebook /LVRally, draugiem.lv /lvrally, YouTube /RallyLiepāja, and Instagram /lvrally.
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More information: Jānis Unbedahts; RA EVENTS, SIA; +371 2655 7801; janis@raevents.lv