Liepāja, January 29, 2016

Due to the uncharacteristically warm conditions – with rain and above freezing temperatures taking over Latvia this past week – the FIA European Rally Championship first round Rally Liepāja stages are currently unsuitable for organising a safe and top quality rally. Because of this fact, a decision has been made to work with FIA and Eurosport Events to move the event to later date in the year.



- ©FIAERC.COM

Even though the year began in Latvia with a snow-filled winter, this week’s warm temperatures and rain have completely melted any snow in the stages and thawed the roads, making it unsuitable for a rally.

“Rally is the combination of multiple complex aspects that together make for a safe event. The most important of those is the safety of both drivers and spectators. In these conditions, when the roads are wet and soft, even the first few cars will destroy the roads so much that in case of an accident the medical and rescue team would have difficulty to quickly get through the stage.

Some have said that it would be possible to organise the event if we just switch from studded tyres to gravel tyres. To that, I would like to mention that this is not possible not only because of FIA regulations, but also would be more dangerous for the participants. On such wet and soft roads, gravel tyres would have very little grip, and the chance of uncontrollable soaring would significantly increase.

In addition to that, we cannot forget that the rally takes place on public roads that are in day-to-day use by the Liepāja and Kuldīga region inhabitants. In agreeing to let the organisers use these roads for the rally, none of the road owners have given us the permission to destroy these roads or limit access to inhabitant’s homes for an extended period of time!” says Rally Liepāja Clerk of the Course and Latvian Automobile Federation Rally commission chairman Jānis Krastiņš.

“To all the rally participants, spectators, supporters and friends, I want to say that we had to make this decision in a very short timeframe, as even last week Latvia was still covered in snow. We had already done all the preparation and were ready to accommodate all the European Championship crews and spectators, but unfortunately we cannot control the weather.

Despite making this tough decision today, we are already working with the FIA and championship organisers Eurosport Events about moving the event to a later date. I sincerely hope that we will be able to find common ground and will be able to tell you the date of Rally Liepāja 2016 very soon!

As for the fans who already bought their rally passes, we are hoping for a bit of understanding on your part as well. This is a very unexpected and unwelcome situation for us, and we are currently working on the possible solutions so that every rally friend has a chance to attend a fantastic event here in Latvia. We would like all the Rally Liepāja rally pass holders to follow the news on the official site at lvrally.com.” Rally Liepāja organiser, RA Events director Raimonds Strokšs.