Route Preview: Rally New Zealand 2022

Rally New Zealand returns to the WRC after a full decade off the calendar, meaning it’s a new rally for most of the drivers. The roads are called often “gravel highways” but it refers only to the smoothness, as the undulating and cambered roads are definitely not as boring as straight highways! Friday contains over half of the rally and is packed with long classic stages, while shorter and less known tests feature on Saturday and Sunday. For this special occasion we’re joined by local WRC driver Hayden Paddon, sharing his knowledge about the stages.

Rally Finland 2022 Stage review + Ideas for 2023

In this post I’m going to review all the stages from this year’s Rally Finland and give my opinion on whether the stage should continue in the rally or not. I also give some of my own ideas for alternate versions or new stages that could and should be used in the future routes.

Route Preview: Acropolis Rally Greece 2022

Acropolis returned onto WRC last year for the first time since 2013. Previously known as a rough car-breaker event, the event is now generally smoother with many roads having been repaired – but there are still more or less rough sections as well. This year’s route is similar to last year but there are five […]

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.