FIA World Rallycross Championship announces the 2017 calendar

FIA World Rallycross Championship has announced their 2017 calendar today.

Majority of the rounds from 2016 are back on the schedule again, but there are also some date changes.

The series will consist of 12 rounds again with the season opener at Circuit De Catalunya in Spain on April 1st/2nd.

The new thing on the calendar is the season finale in South Africa, on a new track in Cape Town. Which means it’s a goodbye to Argentina, that has been on the calender since the series started in 2014.

We still have to see if Rallycross get its big breakthrough outside Europe.

Timmy Hansen, Ken Block, Timur Timerzyanov, Toomi Heikkinen, Tommy Rustad. Photo: JJ Media
Timmy Hansen, Ken Block, Timur Timerzyanov, Toomi Heikkinen, Tommy Rustad.
Photo: JJ Media

Rallycross was created in Great Britain, where the first ever real Rallycross event was held at Lydden Hill on February 4th 1967. Since then it has grown big all around Europe. The fathers of 24 Hours Of Le Mans winners like Tom Kristensen and Alex Wurz were racing in Rallycross in the 1970’s and 80’s, and Formula 1 star Jenson Button’s dad, the late John Button, also had a background in Rallycross.

Today in the FIA World Rallycross Championship we have a mix of Rallycross specialists like the sons of former Rallycross drivers in the shape of Timmy Hansen (Kenneth Hansen’s), Robin Larsson (Lars Larsson’s), and Kevin Eriksson (Andreas Eriksson’s).

But also drivers from FIA World Rally Championship (Petter Solberg, Sebastien Loeb, Ken Block, Guy Wilks), DTM (Mattias Ekström, Timo Scheider), DAKAR Rally (Loeb, Guerlain Chicherit), WTCC, (Loeb, Rene Münnich) and STCC (Johan Kristoffersson, Tommy Rustad).

Andreas Bakkerud, Janis Baumanis, Timmy Hansen Photo: JJ Media
Andreas Bakkerud, Janis Baumanis, Timmy Hansen
Photo: JJ Media

The probably biggest race of the year is held in Höljes in Sweden, with more than 30.000 spectators transform the remote location in the middle of the woods into a big festival atmosphere.

One thing is for sure – FIA World Rallycross Championship is on a forward march, and we are hoping for the series, that there will be even more spectators on the tracks all around the world in 2017.

2017 WORLD RX CALENDAR (Subject to confirmation from World Motorsport Council)

  1. SPAIN – BARCELONA – 1/2 APRIL
  2. PORTUGAL – MONTALEGRE – 22/23 APRIL
  3. GERMANY – HOCKENHEIM – 4/5/6 MAY
  4. BELGIUM – METTET – 13/14 MAY
  5. GREAT BRITAIN – LYDDEN HILL – 27/28 MAY
  6. NORWAY – HELL – 10/11 JUNE
  7. SWEDEN – HOLJES – 1/2 JULY
  8. CANADA – TROIS-RIVIERES – 5/6 AUGUST
  9. FRANCE – LOHEAC – 2/3 SEPTEMBER
  10. LATVIA – RIGA – 16/17 SEPTEMBER
  11. GERMANY – ESTERING – 30 SEPTEMBER/01 OCTOBER
  12. SOUTH AFRICA – CAPE TOWN – 11/12 NOVEMBER

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