Ypres Rally regains place on World Cup calendar

The Ypres Rally is the ninth round of the WRC and will be held from 19 to 21 August. The first World Cup edition of the Ypres Rally was won by Thierry Neuville last year.

The global health crisis put the Ypres Rally in the crosshairs of the WRC promoter in 2020. Despite all frantic efforts, the deadline turned out to be too short to get the Belgian rally on the World Cup calendar. A new attempt was successfully made in 2021 and the very first Belgian World Cup rally was organized in August. The organization worked out a compromise involving both Flanders and Wallonia.

Still got a spot

After two days of racing in the Westhoek, the final day was concluded in Wallonia with a climax on the Francorchamps rallycross circuit. At the end of last year it became clear that the Ypres Rally had no place on the international calendar: neither in the ERC, nor in the WRC. When the World Cup calendar was announced, one match weekend remained available.

For a long time it was thought that the WRC would return to Ireland, but when that proved unfeasible, an alternative was looked for. In the end Monza and Ypres remained. On Friday afternoon it was announced that Ypres can prepare for the WRC for the second time. Nothing is known about the format yet, but a trip to Francorchamps is no longer an option.