The FIA European Rally Championship will conclude on next weekend’s Rally Islas Canarias after the scheduled final round of the year – the Spa Rally – was cancelled due to the COVID-19 restrictions in Belgium.
Despite the best efforts of both the rally organisers and the championship themselves, they have decided that due to the current situation the event simply can’t go ahead on the proposed December 12-13 date.
The ERC has already seen its season heavily disrupted due to the pandemic and the news means the 2020 season will have taken place over five events following the season ending event in Spain, which gets underway a week tomorrow.
The Mayor of Spa, Sophie Delettre, said on the forced cancellation: “Despite the excellent work and all the professionalism of DG Sport I found myself obliged to request the postponement of the Spa Rally.
“The health crisis we are presently experiencing, with the dangers it poses, impels me to be extremely cautious. I am deeply saddened by this health situation, which affects all our activities. Tourism, culture and motor sport are part of the DNA of Spa, and I whole heartedly hope we will be able to resume our lives with peace of mind following this second wave of the epidemic.”
The news follows the earlier cancellations of both the FIA World Rally Championship event at Ypres and the FIA World Rallycross weekend which was set to be based at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
Christian Jupsin of DG Sport, the Spa Rally organiser, added: “It is with great disappointment that we are obliged, similar to last March, to once again postpone the Spa Rally.
“Everything had been put into operation to make this a spectacular edition, and I wish to take this opportunity to salute our team. I also wish to thank the town of Spa and the other municipalities and organisations for the support and trust they placed in us. All that is left now is for us to turn over the pages of this difficult year, retaining all our energy to bounce back and offer up an even more enticing event in 2021.”
The final round of the 2020 FIA European Rally Championship will take place next weekend in Spain with Alexey Lukyanuk leading the standings ahead of Oliver Solberg.
