The second season of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship will have five rounds. The Dakar will kick off in January and after passing through Abu Dhabi, Mexico and Argentina, the event will close its doors in Morocco.
The coincidence in date of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in London and the start of the Andalusia Rally has drawn a peculiar scene. While the main actors of the off-road scene disputed the prologue of the Spanish round of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship, the body announced that the test has no place in next year’s calendar.
The Andalucía Rally will not be part of the FIA Rally-Raid World Championship in 2023, giving way to a double American event that globalizes the championship to a certain extent. The two novelties of the contest in its second season go through the Sonora Rally in Mexico and the Ruta 40 Challenge in Argentinaappointments that replace the Andalucía Rally and the Kazakhstan Rally, canceled this year due to the geopolitical situation.
The Andalucía Rally has presented some deficiencies in its organization that may have cost it dearly
The new configuration of the calendar for 2023 of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship draws the same start as this year, with its queen appointment. In the image of what the 24 Hours of Le Mans entails in the WEC, the Dakar opens the doors of the contest as the longest, most important event that distributes the most points.
The Dakar is scheduled between December 31, 2022 and January 15, 2023 and will give way like this year to Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. The appointment that takes place in the United Arab Emirates has an extension of six days and will take place between February 25 and March 2so the margin to rest after the Dakar is not too great.
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America gains ground
The central part of the calendar takes place on American soil, since in April the Sonora Rally is held in Mexicowhile between August and September it will take place the Argentina Route 40 Challenge. Two tests with a long history within the off-road discipline that due to the COVID-19 pandemic had receded into the background in recent years.
In this sense, the Sonora Rally and Desafío Ruta 40 draw very different challenges those that the Andalucía Rally can offer, an appointment that has perhaps been hampered by its proximity -both in terms of dates and geographically- with the Morocco Rally, a test that will close the 2023 calendar in October. However, the Spanish round has also paid for what can be understood as organizational deficiencies.
FIA Casualty World Cup
Parallel to the confirmation of the FIA World Rally-Raid calendar, it has also been made public next year’s calendar of the FIA Baja World Cup. In this case, Spain will have a presence thanks to the Lower Aragon within a program of eight tests that starts in February with the Saudi Baja and ends in December with the Dubai Baja.
Although Qatar gives continuity to the competition after Saudi Arabia and Jordan serves as an advance to the aforementioned closing of the calendar in Dubai, the truth is that the central part of the program takes place in Europe. Between July and October the FIA Baja World Cup disputes the Italian Baja, Baja Aragón, Baja Poland and Baja Portalegre From Portugal.
Photos: World Rally-Raid Championship