The organisers of the Central Europe Rally announced the route of their event which will hold the penultimate round of this year’s FIA World Rally Championship, taking place on 26-29 October in three different countries, hence why the name Central Europe Rally.
The rally will start with the three-kilometre-long Shakedown stage already on Wednesday 25 October in Tittling in the Dreiburgenland region to the north of Passau in Germany. The ceremonial start will be held in the city centre of Prague at the castle on the day after. The rally will officially start with a Super Special Stage in the Czech Republic’s capital city later in the evening.
The real action starts on Friday with seven stages and over 130 competitive kilometres in the Bohemia area. Both loops will include two passes from three stages, the morning loop will end with another Super Special Stage in the town of Klatovy. Saturday contains six stages and about 100 kilometres in stages. The rally will then move from the Czech Republic to Germany and Austria to run three stages twice.
The first stage of Saturday will be run just outside of Passau while the second and third stages will take the crews over to Austria in the Schwarzenberg am Böhmerwald region where the second stage becomes the longest stage of the rally at a distance of 27 kilometres. both loops will conclude with the stage Knaus Tabbert Bayerischer Wald.
The final day of the rally will include four stages of which about 70 kilometres are driven on stages. The Böhmerwald stage in Austria will provide 17 kilometres of action and will be the opening stage of the morning and the afternoon loops. Passauer Land in Germany is a 16-kilometre stage which will be the second stage on Sunday and it will be featured as the Powerstage later in the afternoon where the rally winner will be crowned.
The 2023 WRC season will end three weeks later with the season-finale in Rally Japan on 16-19 November.
