2013: Three years of innovoations gathered in one RallyRACC

(07/06/2013)

Presentation RallyRACC 2013

The itinerary of the 49 edition of the RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, which will take place from 24 to 27 October having Salou and PortAventura as epicentres of the rally, has been presented today at the Tarragona County Council. The main novelties are:

• Official and real start of the rally in Barcelona
• Salou and PortAventura, hubs of the race for the 9th consecutive year
• Night, day, asphalt, gravel and mixed, all in one

The RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, reaches its 49th edition in 2013, adding a new evolution to its track of innovations and contributions of novelties to the FIA World Championship. The RACC, devoted to its philosophy of innovating, presents an interesting and difficult rally, in which the results will probably not be definitive until the last special stage, and the excitement will be kept from the start in Barcelona to the finish in Salou. The FIA World Rally Championship will be staging its penultimate round of 2013 in Costa Daurada, with all the novelties presented in recent years, gathered in one and the same event, which will continue having this special touch, so much appreciated and welcomed by drivers, teams and spectators.

In 2010, the event had its debut as a mixed rally, bravely introducing gravel sections in an event considered as an asphalt rally, a concept that has been growing along they years until becoming a symbol of identity of the Spanish WRC round. In 2011, the novelty was the reintroduction of night-run special stages, providing the event with more difficulty and at the same time bringing back to the RallyRACC some of the ingredients that were usual in the golden ages of rallying. In 2012, the event launched a new contribution with the staging of an urban SS in the heart of Salou, in addition to holding the official start in the most important urban centre, Barcelona, which was also broadcasted live.  This year, the RallyRACC decided to gather all of these contributions from the last three years to create the definitive rally: Barcelona, Salou, night, day, asphalt, gravel and mixed, and choosing the start for the mixed day at the end of the asphalt section, all together in one single event.

Unanimously recognised since some years ago as a highly selective competition, precisely due to the above mentioned contributions, the 49 Rally RACC will be the penultimate scoring round of a calendar of thirteen this year and possibly the framework for the decision of some of the titles at stake, as it is a scoring round for all of the titles in the Championship. The event will be valid for the FIA Drivers, Co-Drivers and Manufacturers/Teams Championship, the WRC-2 and Production Championship, the WRC-3 and the Junior Championship. This should allow for a crowded entry list, in accordance with the interest arisen by the RallyRACC internationally.

2013 will be the ninth consecutive year in which the Spanish round of the WRC will be staged completely in the Costa Daurada, with nerve centres in Salou and the PortAventura theme park, and the second year in a row with the official start in Barcelona.