WRC Rallies with stages in multiple countries

The Central Europe Rally is going to be revolutionary with stages split evenly between three countries – Germany, Czech Republic and Austria. Or is it? Already in the past WRC rallies have had special stages in multiple countries. Let’s go through all occasions.

Cover image by Mantas Volungevicius / Flickr

East African Safari 1973

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We start with the East African Safari of 1973 whose route took had been run since 1953 on the soils of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. However, this tradition ended already the following year with the rally being run solely in Kenya and the name truncated to just Safari Rally.

The Uganda sections were dropped because of the problems in that country and the Tanzanian ones because the authorities of that country required the event to start and finish at Dar es Salaam if it were to enter Tanzania at all.

Motorsport Magazine 6/1974

Press-On-Regardless 1974

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The 1974 Press-on-Regardless rally was supposed to contain one monstrous 78 km stage on Canada’s side. Eventually road damage lead to the stage being canceled.

Monte Carlo 1975-1976

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Monte Carlo has always been a multi-national rally being run under the flag of Monaco but most of the stages in France. And in the early years the drivers would start from other countries through a concentration run.

But for this blog post, we’re only interested in special stages. However, Monte also makes an entry here with two Sanremo stages borrowed for the 1975 and 1976 Monte Carlo opening loops, as the distance from Monaco to Sanremo is not that big.

Sanremo 1979-1980

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San Marino is one of the two countries to have had a WRC stage on its soil without its own event. But when Rally Sanremo started using Tuscan gravel roads in 1979, a rest halt was held in San Marino with one of the special stages ending on that side of the border.

Monte Carlo 1997 & 2007-2008

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17 years passed with no new twin-country WRC events until 1997 when Monte Carlo ran its first special stage inside the principality, on the F1 street circuit. Two versions of the stage were run to open and close the rally.

Another 10 years passed with WRC events sticking to single countries but the Monaco circuit stage returned for the 2007 and 2008 rallies.

Ireland 2007 & 2009

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Rally Ireland featured on the 2007 and 2009 WRC seasons, arranging half of the stages on each side of the border. In that sense this is closest to what Central Europe Rally is about to do – have a real multi-country event instead of a quick visit other side.

Here we have examples of both sides, first Northern Ireland

And then Republic of Ireland

Sweden 2011-2020

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The most often run twin-country event has been Rally Sweden with some stages on Norway’s side from 2001 to 2020. This was made partly to ensure better snow conditions. Some stages like Kirkenær, Opaker and Finnskogen had featured earlier on Norway’s on WRC event in 2007 and 2009.

Meanwhile the Løvhaugen (later called Röjden) stage started and ended on Sweden, but most of it was run on Norway’s side

Poland 2014

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Lithuania is the second country to have hosted WRC stages without its own event. As Rally Poland has been run close to the Baltic country’s border, two double-run stages and a remote service were set to run in 2014. However, the second passes were canceled because of road deterioration.

YPRES 2021-2022

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As Ypres is close to France’s border, the Westouter-Boeschepe stage started in Belgium and ended in France. This change was even visible in the way the junctions and spectator areas were marked on the stage.

Furthermore, when Kalle Rovanperä crashed on the stage in 2022, it was on France’s soil, so he can say he has never crashed in Belgium!

On the border

There are also a few occasions where a rally stage has been very close to another state’s soil but not crossed the border.

In here we start already from 1973 when Rally Poland was run in the South of the country, several stages getting close to Czechoslovakia’s (now Czech and Slovakia) border as well as one stage close to the USSR (now Ukraine).

While Monte Carlo borrowed some Sanremo stages, but Sanremo has also been driven close to France, like the Gouta stage in 1974

Jordan Rally’s iconic Jordan River stage is run on the East side of the river, while the river acts as a border to the West Bank / Palestinian state.

Rally Alsace had many stages run close to Germany’s border, namely the Strasbourg stage. In turn, Rally Deutschland’s Saarbrucken stage in 2017 was run close to France. However, more curiously the Sauertal stage was run with a viewing distance to Luxembourg, a country rarely associated with rallies!

The most Northern stages of Rally Portugal have started relatively close to Spain, like the 2015-2018 Caminha stage finish.

Several stages of Croatia Rally are within a kilometre from Slovenia’s border and actually the liaison to the Stojdraga stage must cross the border.

The Rokkala stage in 1000 Lakes Rally 1975-1976 was driven very close to the Soviet Union border

Did I forget something? Let me know!