Paraguay will join the World Rally Championship calendar from 2025 on a “multi-year” deal, becoming the 38th country to host a WRC round in the championship’s 52-year history.
The South American nation’s president Santiago Peña announced at the opening ceremony of Petrobras Rally Transchaco, the third round of the country’s domestic rally series, that his country would host a WRC round from next year.
“Paraguay is big, and the world is in the process of discovering us. Hosting world class events such as the WRC is yet another way to show the world our greatness,” proclaimed President Peña in Asunción, his nation’s capital city.
The southeastern city of Encarnación will act as host city for the rally, putting it directly on the border with neighboring Argentina and also three hours away from the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Paraguay's iconic feature is likely to be its bright red gravel roads, as demonstrated here by Diego Dominguez Sr. on his way to victory on Rally Trans Itapúa in 2019
The itinerary for the rally will be partially based on an existing FIA-sanctioned rally, Rally Trans Itapúa, which has hosted the opening round of the CODASUR championship, the continental-level series in South America.
Itapúa’s red gravel roads will present a medium-speed challenge to the WRC crews, not quite as fast as the rapid gravel roads of Poland, Latvia and Finland but faster than Rally Chile.
While Chile is not confirmed as a round of the 2025 WRC season just yet, a WRC Promoter statement indicated that Paraguay’s place on the calendar “realizes WRC Promoter’s long-held ambition to returning to two events annually in South America.”
Local stars like Dominguez Sr and Alejandro Galanti have the potential to add domestic interest to the WRC2 support category
Paraguay’s addition to the calendar has been a long time coming, according to WRC Promoter’s senior event director Simon Larkin: “We have been in discussions with Paraguay already for a number of years and I am incredibly pleased to see this agreement across the line,” he said. “There is no questioning the nation’s passion for rallying and we cannot wait to transmit this passion, as well as Paraguay’s spectacular scenery around the world.”
While Rally Trans Itapúa, the event Paraguay’s world championship debut will be based on, traditionally takes place in March, no date has been confirmed for its WRC round as of yet.
Paraguay is the second event on the 2025 calendar making its WRC debut; Rally Islas Canarias will also join the championship for the first time in a two-year agreement from next season.
