The RallyRACC, decisive for the outcome of the WRC 2021

05/10/2021

• The World Championship arrives in Spain as the 11th and penultimate round of the WRC, with everything still to be decided.
• Full field: FIA Junior WRC, Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica, Beca Rallye Team Spain Júnior and Suzuki Swift Cup
• All-asphalt configuration and one new stage: La Granadella' (21.77 km)
• 1,410.29 km of which 280.46 km of speed on 17 timed stages.
• The rally recovers stages that took place prior to 2014: ‘Vilaplana' and ‘Riba-roja'.
• The 'Salou' urban stage will be maintained in this edition, which will be the 16th consecutive RallyRACC on the Costa Daurada, Salou and PortAventura World.

Barcelona, 5 October 2021 - The FIA World Rally Championship arrives in Spain with everything still to be decided, both in terms of the different classes of the overall world championship and the parallel championships that also make up the top discipline of road racing. After a year's break, the 56th RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España 2021, will be held from 14 to 17 October and will be the 11th of the 12 rounds that make up the 2021 World Championship calendar.

The sporting situation of the championships that meet in the RallyRACC has led to an excellent list of 73 entries, to which are added another 15 units of the Spanish Suzuki Swift Cup. All this shows the great interest of drivers and teams to compete in a terrain that in recent seasons has proved crucial.

After the slight changes applied to the previously unveiled itinerary, the 56th RallyRACC route will have a total of 1,410.29 km. Of these, 280.46 km will be pure speed over 17 timed stages. The Spanish world championship race remains faithful for the 16th consecutive edition to the Costa Daurada, which hosted it for the first time in 2005, and is considered a perfect location to host an event of this magnitude.

The Tarragona rally is in line with the new regulations of a single type of road surface demanded by the FIA for all WRC events. The new regulations prohibit mixed layouts (as was the case with the RallyRACC since 2010), so the structure returns to road conditions that are 100% asphalt.

Quantity and quality: 5 different winner
The 2021 World Rally Championship has shown itself to be open and with possibilities for the top drivers. Suffice to say that in the 10 rounds of the World Championship so far, five drivers have won at least one event: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT's Sébastien Ogier (current leader with 4 wins and 2 podiums), Elfyn Evans (2nd with 2 wins and 3 podiums) and Kalle Rovanperä (4th with 2 wins and 2 podiums), and Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT's Thierry Neuville (3rd with 1 win and 5 podiums) and Ott Tänak (5th with 1 win and 3 podiums). Both Toyota and Hyundai are also in a tight duel for the Manufacturers' World Championship title, with M-Sport Ford WRT in third.

The current leaders and World Champions, Sébastien Ogier-Julien Ingrassia, have a good lead over their pursuers (24 points), but the possibilities are still somewhat open and the podium is still to be decided, so the Tarragona territory could possibly dictate the verdict. The Spanish event's superb entry is headed by 12 RC1-WRC cars, 9 of which score points for the constructors' championship: 5 Hyundai i20 Coupé WRC, 4 Toyota Yaris WRC and 3 Ford Fiesta WRC. In this sporting elite there will once again be a Spanish team, led by RACC's Dani Sordo, who this season is competing alongside Cándido Carrera at the wheel of his official Hyundai i20 Coupé WRC.

WRC2 and WRC3, the other big battles
The other two lower categories that also form part of the WRC will experience their defining phase on the Costa Daurada. Current leader Andreas Mikkelsen (Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo) will not be at the start, but all of his pursuers will be. The WRC2 battle promises to be a big one, especially as these contenders for the podium in the category will be mixed with many drivers who, although not in the points, drive exactly the same cars, making for a great show.

The RC2-Rally2 class boasts an extraordinary 31 cars, eight of them participating in the mentioned WRC2 section. A handful of Spanish teams are entered in this class, with two of them able to compete with the world championship protagonists: the current Spanish Champion Pepe López-Borja Odriozola (Skoda Fabia Evo) and the former Junior World Champion and RACC Driver, Jan Solans-Rodrigo Sanjuán (Citroën C3).

As for the RC4-Rally 4 vehicles, 24 units have been entered, 6 of them participating in the FIA Junior WRC and another 14 in the Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica, a single-make class full of Spanish teams that also includes the participants of the Beca Rallye Team Spain Junior.

The teams from our country come to the home rally in a good number, 21 in total, to which must be added another two co-drivers competing alongside foreign drivers.

The entry list is completed by 3 GT cars and 3 RC5-Rally 5 cars. To this magnificent list endorsed by the FIA we must add the 15 teams participating in the Suzuki Swift Cup which, for technical regulation reasons, cannot appear on the published list and are included on a complementary list.

A not easy itinerary
Given the changes implemented a few weeks ago, the 56th RallyRACC will have a completely new stage for all participants: ‘La Granadella' (21.77 km, Friday 15 October). Two other stages included in this edition were last contested in 2014 or in previous years: ‘Vilaplana' (20 km) and ‘Riba-roja' (14.20 km). These three special stages will be contested in two passages on Friday 15 October, a day that is practically new for everyone. A sixth special stage, 'Querol-Les Pobles' (19.14 km), to be held on Saturday 16, has many modifications in its development due to the fact that it uses different variants. The rest of the special stages are the same as in 2019.

The new stage 'La Granadella' is designed on the road from Bovera to El Soleràs and has an initial part with a good pace, a characteristic that changes halfway through the route when it joins a narrower and more twisty road with an old floor. All of these changes and the fact that the race will return to its all-asphalt configuration make it a practically new competition. The shakedown, or test stage, will also be different to that of the last ten years, as this season it will be the winding tarmac route of the 'Coll de La Teixeta' (4.31 km), a long-standing classic of the rally organised by the RACC.

Also of particular interest in these times of pandemic is the maintenance of the 'Salou' urban stage on the itinerary, the last one on Saturday 16, which is very popular with the drivers.

Common commitment
The 56th RallyRACC enjoys the essential collaboration of the Salou Town Council, the Tarragona County Council, the Costa Daurada Tourism Board, the Salou Tourism Board, PortAventura World and the General Secretariat of Sports of the Catalan Government, who have demonstrated their commitment to keeping the only Spanish round of the FIA World Rally Championship on the calendar.

30 years in the World Championship
The RallyRACC reaches its 56th edition in 2021 and celebrates 30 years as a qualifying event for the FIA World Rally Championship, a real milestone. The first edition took place at the end of June 1957 and it celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2014. In these 30 years in the championship, the RallyRACC has been staged for 14 years in Lloret de Mar (Costa Brava) and for 16 years (this year included) in Salou (Costa Daurada) and PortAventura World.

1916 The ‘Volta Automobilistica a Catalunya' is born
1957 Creation of the Rallye Catalunya-Volta a Catalunya (Spanish Championship)
1973 Organisation of the Rally Cataluña-Rallye de las Cavas (Spanish Championship)
1980 The Rally Catalunya becomes part of the European Championship
1988 Merger of Rally Catalunya and Rally Costa Brava in the European Championship
1991 1st edition of the Rallye Catalunya-Costa Brava, scoring round towards the World Rally Championship
2005 The RallyRACC CATALUNYA-COSTA DAURADA is born (Salou and PortAventura)
2014 The RallyRACC CATALUNYA celebrates its 50th anniversary
2021 30 years of RallyRACC in the FIA World Rally Championship

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