A test rally to assess the return of the WRC to the United States

The prospect of seeing the World Rally Championship (WRC) back in North America is gaining momentum with the announcement of a “test event” in the United States scheduled for September 2023. The information comes from media based in Tennessee such as Chattanooga Times Free Press.

The competition will be based in Chattanooga, the fourth largest city in the state of Tennessee in the south of the United States, and the stages are planned in the Cherokee National Forest area, on a gravel surface.

Le rally is supported above all by the Chattanooga tourism office, including its president Barry White, who held a press conference this Wednesday, March 15. “We want to reintroduce rallying at international level (in the United States. Ed.) and we must bring the United States back into this discipline”, did he declare.

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“A demonstration rally will introduce this region to what rallying is all about on April 7-8, then we will hold a test event in September to show the WRC and FIA (International Federation of Automobiles) what we are capable of. The WRC wants to come back to the United States and we have been working with them for a year and a half. »

Indeed, the promoters of WRC has been seeking for several years to organize a round on the North American continent, in addition to trips to Mexico since 2004 and to South America (Argentina, Chile) since the beginnings of the World Rally Championship in the 1970s

If this Tennessee Rally is successful, then the event could well make its entry into the WRC program in 2024. The calendar already provides for the arrival of a new round, the Latvia Rally. For a while, Saudi Arabia will also try its luck again. With this trio of meetings, it obviously appears that there will not be room for all the organizers, including traditional events...

A little history

Les États-Unis ont déjà figuré au calendrier du Championnat du monde des rallyes, entre 1973 et 1988. Tout d’abord, le Rallye Press on Regardless et la région de Détroit (Michigan) ont vu les victoires du méconnu Canadien Walter Boyce (Toyota Corolla) en 1973, suivi par le plus célèbre Jean-Luc Thérier à bord d’une étonnante Renault 17 Gordini in 1974.

Then, the last four excursions of the cars in Uncle Sam's country were held at the Olympus Rally from 1985 to 1988, in the northwest of the country in Washington State. Lancia scored three successes there (Markku Alén in 1986, Juha Kankkunen in 1987 and Massimo Biasion in 1988) and Audi only one (Hannu Mikkola in 1985).