The calendar for the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship has been announced today. Most notably, Portugal returns and the series will head to the Nurburgring for the first time.

Abu Dhabi has moved from being the season opener to the penultimate round of the year with Barcelona kickstarting the 2020 season.

There are two TBC (to be confirmed) events in July and September. The September round will be a European event.

The unconfirmed rounds are expected to be announced at the next FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting on December 4.

Trois-Rivieres, Silverstone and Riga are not on the calendar. World RX‘s presence in Britain looks to be diminishing with a British round unlikely to be one of the TBC events. It’s a big shame since rallycross is a big part of British motorsport.

The loss of Lydden Hill in 2018 was a big blow in itself but now it looks there will be no British round whatsoever.

No North American round would be a loss to the championship too, especially Trois-Rivieres which has featured on every calendar since the inaugural season in 2014.

Hell, (June 13-14) Holjes (July 4-5) and Loheac (September 5-6) remain a staple part of the calendar and the introduction of the iconic Nurburgring are huge positives for the series, although there is an argument that there are not enough traditional rallycross tracks on the schedule.

As it will next week, South Africa is the finale in November.

Credit: IMG / FIA World RX

Senior Vice President of Motorsports at IMG and promoter of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, Paul Bellamy said: “World RX continues to flourish as our footprint grows. We have put together a perfect blend of traditional rallycross circuits and bold new venues for 2020.

“We are delighted to add Nurburgring to the FIA World Rallycross Championship and equally pleased to welcome back Portugal in 2020 and extend our partnership with the City of Cape Town until 2021.

“Last year we added Abu Dhabi and Spa-Francorchamps. Next season Nurburgring joins the family and we will have further details of the two other destinations for 2020 shortly.

The traditional FIA European Rallycross Championship classes for Euro Supecar and Super1600 will continue to support world championship rounds, plus the RX2 International series.

Also in 2020, begins the brand-new, all-electric rallycross development series, codenamed Projekt E, which will feature at a number of the European rounds of the world championship.

If 2020 is anything like 2019, the World RX will be in for another thriller.