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Twitter2023 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC)
The FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) ran for the first time in 2022 and the series has expanded from four to five rounds as a result of the success of the inaugural championship.
The seventh World Championship running under the governance of the FIA will head to North and South America for the first time, in addition to visiting two established events in the Middle East and a season finale at the Rallye du Maroc in North Africa.
The Dakar Rally is the global flagship event in cross-country rallying and kickstarts the second season of the W2RC series from a new base at Yanbu on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. The longest and most challenging Dakar since the halcyon days of Africa and South America then crosses the region’s vast Empty Quarter for the first time before finishing in Damman in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.
The long-established Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge maintains its position as round two and offers the challenge of towering sand dunes and baking heat in the remote UAE deserts.
The Sonora Rally in Mexico is a new addition to the calendar and offers a unique challenge of desert stages through the Sonoran Desert in the north of the country. The second new event is Argentina’s renowned Desafio Ruta 40 at the end of August/early September, which uses desert stages and remote terrain adjacent to the country’s Ruta Nacional 40.
Titles are awarded to Drivers, Co-drivers, Manufacturers and T3 and T4 Drivers and Co-drivers. Only the Dakar Rally, Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and Rallye du Maroc will count towards the Drivers’ and Co-Drivers’ Championships in the T5 truck category.
The point-scoring system for Cross-Country Rallies and Marathon Rallies that was introduced in 2022 also reflects the difference between the events, and Leg points for the top five crews in each category will still bolster competition.
Updated regulations are in place for 2023, including an Equivalence of Technology system allowing vehicles of different engineering designs to compete within a similar level of performance.
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