Route Preview: Ypres Rally Belgium 2022

Ypres is a classic tarmac rally which got itself a WRC slot for 2021 and is back this year replacing Rally GB. This year the route revolves completely around Ypres instead of finishing at Spa, but only two stages are the same as last year. Ypres has a very distinct character of narrow tarmac roads […]

Route Preview: Rally Finland 2022

Rally Finland returns to full length and its normal calendar slot. Half of the route is reused from last year with about a third completely new or dusted off from the archives. The stages consist again largely of smaller roads, but especially on Friday they are very fast, and surprisingly void of jumps. There’s also a new shakedown and changes on the Harju super special.

Route Preview: Rally Estonia 2022

The third edition of WRC Rally Estonia is held on familiar stages but with modifications on almost all of them. There will be fast sections and big (artificial) jumps, but also very technical and soft small roads.

Route Preview: Safari Rally 2022

Safari Rally returned onto WRC last year and is here to stay. It’s still different to all other events with unique terrain and high contrasts of fast and slow sections, although not as wild and long as in the past decades. However, this year Safari will likely be the longest rally of the season with 363 stage kilometres. Almost all stages are changed at least a bit from last year. We could also expect the rally to be quicker with two of the slowest stages removed and replaced with ones run on actual roads as opposed to off-road tracks.

Route Preview: Rally Italia Sardinia 2022

Rally Italia Sardinia is one of the roughest gravel events on the current calendar, characterized by its narrow gravel roads. This year the base of the rally has shifted back to Alghero from Olbia, but the latter city also features in the rally. All the stages are familiar from the past few years in some […]

Route Preview: Rally Portugal 2022

The gravel debut of Rally1 cars will happen on Rally Portugal, one of the WRC classics. It’s known for not updating its route every year and such is the case this year when most of the route is identical to last year, with just small changes on one forest stage and the shakedown, as well […]

1000 Lakes Classics: Ehikki – Between the barns

Ehikki is one of the definite 1000 Lakes Classics in the Jämsä area, although it hasn’t been used in 15 years until it returns for the 2022 event as Vekkula. In its classic form Ehikki is a fast-flowing stage – the corners are typically fast but not flat, and there are more crests than jumps. One characteristic feature is that there are several barns very close to the road.

Route Preview: Croatia Rally 2022

Croatia was a new all-tarmac round for 2021. Its fast-flowing but often narrow roads with worn surfaces and jumps provided a unique challenge for the WRC season. This year it’s back with two new stages, new shakedown and some stages shuffled between Friday and Saturday.

Fantasy Routes: 1000 Lakes Rally 1987 without chicanes

The route of the 1987 1000 Lakes Rally was exceptional with small roads, farmyard detours and chicanes. But could it have been done better with a little help from data and calculations? Can we find stages from the past editions that would have been naturally slow enough for the rally instead of the stuff they […]

Rally Finland Top 30 stages 1-10

We have reached the final part of the Top 30. We could say all these ten stages are classics as the grades go from 3 towards 5. The number one will not be a surprise, but the reasons behind it are hopefully interesting.