"Candidate Event" in WRC: how does it work?

Yesterday, at the end of the day, the FIA ​​officially announced that a "Candidate Event" will be held in the United States next June, with the aim of considering the inclusion of a US round in the calendar. WRC 2027. This event, organized in Kentucky and Tennessee, will be held in collaboration with the ACCUS, the Automobile Competition Committee of the United States, and will therefore have to prove itself in order to reach the ultimate goal. rally global. To achieve this, the event will be organized according to the standards of a regular WRC round and will be observed as such by the FIA. It will therefore have to demonstrate its ability to achieve a level of safety, sporting challenge, and logistics that meets the usual standards of the FIA ​​and its flagship WRC events. The governing bodies will thus closely scrutinize every detail to allow the organizers direct access to the WRC in 2027.

A likely return to the calendar 39 years later

“The United States is a nation where motorsport is part of the collective DNA, with world-class championships and a great appetite for major competitions,” FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem declared yesterday, delighted by the announcement of the candidate event. If the experiment proves successful, the United States would thus regain its place in the WRC, which it abandoned in 1988, the year of the last Olympus Rally in the World Championship. This is not the first time the USA has attempted a return to the WRC, as a test event was organized and observed by Michèle Mouton, then in charge of safety at the FIA, in 2024. Another event was initially planned for 2025 but was postponed due to time constraints: it is therefore understandable that the one announced yesterday for next June will be the one. Now, the Americans just need to find their star driver…

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Conner Martell, the new face of American rallying?

In recent weeks, Conner Martell announced his commitment to competing in several rounds of the 2026 World Rally Championship, most likely with the French team 2C Compétition. Present at the final round of the 2025 French Gravel Rally Championship, the Rallye Terre de Vaucluse, the 28-year-old American surprised everyone by finishing in second place. In the USA, he secured his first national victory last year and finished second in the ARA national championship. All things considered, with Conner Martell, the United States may have the potential to become a leading figure in American rallying on the international stage, and this will undoubtedly impact the popularity of this potential future event. Furthermore, with his co-driver Alessandro Gelsomino, the former navigator of the late Ken Block, Conner Martell has everything it takes to embody this resurgence of American rallying. This is fortunate, as the discipline is still seeking a more global dimension.