The 2016 Rally China has been cancelled due to weather damage as it was originally scheduled to be Round 10 of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship season.
Event organiser LeSport and the Federation of Automobile and Motorcycle Sports of China cited heavy damage caused by torrential storms and flooding around the Huairou region, near Beijing where next month’s Rally China was to be staged this year.
A last-minute visit from the FIA and WRC representatives in China last week where representatives said that the rally was impossible to get the repairs in time for the event to be run in its slot of the 8-11 September. A formal request was handed in which the 2016 Rally China is cancelled for this year.
This comes after North China suffered some of the worst floods in years, evacuating people from their homes, prompting authorities to take emergency measures in the region which are ongoing.
According to CAMF and LeSport, the weather left some special stage sections requiring major work in which the Road Adminstration Authority confirmed that would not be completed in time before Rally China had begun.
It would have been the first WRC Rally China since 1999 when Didier Auriol won at this rally for Toyota. The calendar for the 2016 WRC season goes down to 13 Rounds as there will not be a rally that replaces Rally China, which means the Rallye de France on 29 September – 2 October 2016 becomes the tenth round of the 2016 WRC season.
