A new date has been confirmed for Rally Liepāja, with the FIA European Rally Championship event in Latvia now taking place from 16-18 September 2016.
 
The FIA Rally Commission has been informed of the new date, which will now position the event as the ninth and penultimate round of the 2016 ERC season and the closing round of the ERC Junior Championship.
 
The rally had to be moved from its original February date after higher-than-normal temperatures damaged the surface of the stages in Latvia, causing concerns for safety and also for the state of roads used by the public.
 
Event organiser, RA Events, and the ERC promoter, Eurosport Events, worked quickly to establish an alternative date for the rally.
 
While Rally Liepāja was founded as a winter event, the new September date means it will now take place over fast gravel stages.
 
ERC Co-ordinator Jean-Baptiste Ley said: “We are very pleased that a new date has been approved for Rally Liepāja and we thank the members of the FIA Rally Commission for their assistance. Finding a free slot in the current calendar was not an easy exercise, as we needed to avoid any clashes with WRC events and maintain enough time for logistics between one event and the next. This rescheduling has allowed us to keep a perfect balance between gravel and asphalt events – which is a key asset of the ERC – and to ensure that we can run an unchanged six-round schedule in the well-known ERC Junior Championship. By announcing the new date as quickly as possible, we hope it will give teams and crews sufficient time to make the necessary arrangements and also allow fans to start planning for the rally weekend.”