World Rallycross News: WRX launches revised 2020 calendar set for August start
The World Rallycross Championship is planning to get its 2020 season underway in late August, the series has revealed as part of a revised nine-round calendar
Prior to the updated calendar being released on Monday, only the first four rounds of the season, in Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Norway had been officially postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
It has now been confirmed that the first round is planned to be held at Holjes, Sweden, in late August, the event moving from its first weekend in July slot.
The French and Latvian rounds maintain their original September locations in the schedule, before the postponed rounds at Spa (Belgium), Montalegre (Portugal) and Barcelona (Spain) are planned to be held over three weeks back-to-back in early October.
The Yas Marina circuit is now scheduled to host World RX's first ever double-header for rounds seven and eight on the last weekend in October, before the season is concluded in mid-December at the Nurburgring.
The Norwegian and South African rounds are not present in the revised calendar.
While the Lanke Circuit at Hell (Norway) is a busy, multi-purpose venue, the lengthy sea-freight logistics to and from South Africa would make it difficult to fit the long-haul event into the packed autumn schedule.
The European Championships for Supercar and Super1600 categories have been dropped to four and five rounds respectively, while the new Projekt E electric series is also planning to be run over four events, with the single-make RX2 series run over five.
While the supporting classes are spread over the European-based rounds, only the World Championship Supercars will compete in the Abu Dhabi double-header.
The planned new Russian round had already been dropped from the 2020 schedule due to contractual issues, prior to COVID-19 affecting the motorsport calendar.
The series has stated that the revised calendar remains provisional and subject to change.
In lieu of real-world racing, WRX has staged two online events on the DIRT Rally video game in association with Motorsport Games, replacing the Catalunya and Montalegre rounds.
Revised 2020 WRX calendar
Sweden - 20-23 August
France - 4-6 September
Latvia - 18-20 September
Belgium - 2-4 October
Portugal - 9-11 October
Spain - 16-18 October
Abu Dhabi - 29-31 October
Germany - 11-13 December
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Top Comments
WRX Portugal: Gronholm claims second victory of 2021
Portugal WRX: Hansen leads Gronholm after Saturday's running
The addictive experience of racing a rallycross Supercar
Andretti F1 plans unchanged after ownership change
Ben Hunt: Is F1 at risk of being dragged into the race for the White House?
How an underfunded rising talent earned a career ROKiT boost
Supercars Finals switch-up a hit or miss? Our writers have their say
From Lebanon to cross-category world titles - a rally legend's top 10
How to make an F1 venue fit for World RX
Volkswagen hasn't disappeared completely
Why rallycross is becoming irresistible
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
