FIA Historic Rally Calendar

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The FIA World Motor Sport Council has approved the 2023 calendar for the FIA European Historic Rally Championship, which will include nine rounds this year (see the calendar section this issue).  In a schedule that will see events in eight different countries, a second gravel rally has been added to the mix for the first time with the Historic Acropolis Rally in Greece in November.

The season will start in Spain with the 71st Rally Costa Brava based in Girona on 16-19 March.  The Historic Vltava Rally in the Czech Republic will host round 2 in April before the competitors head back to Spain for the Rally de Asturias Historico in May.  The Rallye du Chablais in Switzerland will host round 4 in early June, with the Mecsek Rally in Hungary following three weeks later.  The Championship moves to Austria for the Rally Weiz on 13-15 July, with the Lahti Historic Rally in Finland in August, the first of the two gravel events.  The penultimate event will be the Sanremo Rally Storico in October, with the new event for 2023, the Historic Acropolis Rally, being held on 2-4 November to conclude what promises to be an exciting season of rallying.

John Naylor, President of the FIA Historic Motor Sport Commission, said, “After an extremely successful season in 2022, the calendar for 2023 looks to build on those successes to further improve the events for the competitors and the organisers.   While the championship will provide stability by visiting eight of the events that were on the calendar in 2022, the inclusion of the Acropolis Historic Rally adds another exciting dimension.  It brings a second gravel event to the schedule, and we are pleased to include another famous name from the golden era of rallying on the FIA European Historic Rally Championship calendar.”

Rally Regulations 2023

There will be some changes to the FIA European Historic Rally Regulations for this year, most notably with a simplification of the system of classes and categories and with the attribution of points.  Starting this season, only category points will be allocated to the classified Drivers and Co-drivers in each category, there will be no points for classes, however there will be more generous points for those starting in earlier or smaller capacity cars.  Also, though drivers must still register for the championship before their first event at www.fia.com/ehrc, co-drivers will automatically score points  without the need to register if they are with a registered driver.

The categories will remain unaltered in 2023, with Category 1 for cars built before 1969, Category 2 for cars between 1970 and 1975, Category 3 for cars between 1976 and 1981 and Category 4 for cars built between 1982 and 1990.  However, the classes in each category have been simplified.  There have also been some changes and simplifications to the penalties for lateness or non-starting a stage.

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