With 2021 fast running out, time to look forward to 2022.
At the top table, some changes - hybrid cars, M-Sport upping their game with the return of Loeb, FIA chief Matton & champion Ogier leaving (or is he?). The calendar is interesting with a welcome return to New Zealand, but apparently no Rally GB. There is a gap in late August for Rally TBA which might (I hope) be for Ypres or will it be a Northern Ireland version of Rally GB? Heaven knows how they would sort out the post-Brexit protocol issues...
WRC 2022
Monte Carlo Rally (January 20-23)
Rally Sweden (February 24-27)
Croatia Rally (April 21-24)
Rally Portugal (May 19-22)
Rally Italy (June 2-5)
Safari Rally Kenya (June 23-26)
Rally Estonia (July 14-17)
Rally Finland (August 4-7)
TBC (August 18-21)
Acropolis Rally (September 8-11)
Rally New Zealand (September 29-October 2)
Rally Spain (October 20-23)
Rally Japan (November 10-13)
In a flash-back to last year's will it, won't it? will Omicron scupper the Monte? France is heavily restricted and us scummy Brits are forbidden to enter. Will the current good snow survive two months to allow a proper Swedish Rally? No sign of a fall-back Lapland #2 option this year. And will Japan ever happen? November is a long way off, but I remember saying that last year....
ERC 2022
Round 1: Rally Serras de Fafe e Felgueiras (Portugal, gravel), March 12-13, 2022
Round 2: Azores Rallye (Gravel), March 26-27, 2022
Round 3: Rally Islas Canarias (Asphalt), May 13-14, 2022
Round 4: Rally Poland (Gravel), June 11-12, 2022
Round 5: Rally Latvia (Gravel), July 2-3, 2022
Round 6: Rally di Roma Capitale (Italy, asphalt), July 23-24, 2022
Round 7: Barum Czech Rally Zlín (Asphalt), August 27-28, 2022
Round 8: TBC
So no real change there, except that the WRC Promoter has taken over. No rounds in France, Belgium, Finland or Ireland but what do those countries know about rallying after all! Better to have a quarter of the rounds on distant off-shore islands...
Elsewhere, the increasingly irrelevant Dakar Rally will be trundling around Saudi Arabia between 1-14 January, if you are interested. I am not, as you may have guessed!
Any other rallying news, comments or debates are welcome in this thread. It isn't all about the WRC!
Edited by BRG, 26 December 2021 - 19:57.