The World Rally Championship will not be visiting Latvia this year after Rally Liepāja failed to find agreement with WRC Promoter.
It had been hoped the Latvian event could restart the WRC after a five-month coronavirus-enforced shutdown on August 14. It’s now thought most likely that honour will fall to the country’s northern neighbor Estonia.
“Firstly, we thank WRC Promoter for recognising ERC Rally Liepāja as an event worthy of inclusion in the WRC,” said Raimonds Strokšs, director of RA Events, the Rally Liepāja promoter. “This is great testament to the work we have done since 2012 when we started preparations for the first Rally Liepāja in 2013. We also thank the FIA and Eurosport Events for their assistance.
“In these past few days we have done an enormous job. We have shown to the WRC Promoter that we and the whole of Latvia are not afraid to work hard and accept a challenge as massive as organising a WRC event in such a short amount of time. However, due to various reasons, it has been agreed that the ERC Rally Liepāja will not be a new addition to the revised WRC calendar this year.
“We want to thank the Government of Latvia, our rally host cities, our partners, media and every single one of the rally enthusiasts for the trust they showed and support they provided. But we have to remember that Latvia and ERC Rally Liepāja were offered a unique opportunity. We were a step away from finding an agreement to host a WRC rally in the Baltics for the first time, and we are yet to find out what opportunities this might lead to in future.”
The event’s status as a round of the European Rally Championship remains unchanged.
