I hate to pick nits, but, while great, Arctic Rally Finland is not a World Rally Championship event, even though WRC-spec cars are allowed and indeed necessary for winning the overall event. This is because the Neste Rally Finland is a more established World-class race held in August, and it wouldn't fly to have two WRC rallies in the same country every year. The main WRC Series winter event is the Swedish Rally, which follows Monte Carlo in the calendar.
I think it's a website update cockup on WRC's part. The series calendar for 2022 does not list Arctic Rally, just the Monte Carlo and the Swedish rally before April: https://www.wrc.com/en/championship/calendar/wrc/ Also the link to Arctic Rally homepage on the page you linked directs to Rally Finland website. All this confusion is yet another result of Covid, because the Swedish Rally 2021 was canceled because of it, and the Arctic Rally Finland was a temporary last-minute substitution to get one snow rally into the calendar.
Yeah, but Rally Finland (I prefer the original "1000 Lakes Rally") is different from Arctic Rally Finland. That press release is from September ´21, and makes very vague references to Arctic Rally. It is theoretically possible that omicron will force another rearrangement, but it's a rapidly diminishing possibility, as there's no sign that the Swedish Rally would be canceled. A year ago the decision to cancel Sweden had been done in December 2020, and the decision to run a winter WRC event using the same stages and organization as an earlier Finnish national championship event was a done deal in mid-January when the national rally took place (https://arcticrally.fi/en/2021/01/18/wrc-arctic-rally-finland/). Having two WRC rallies in the same country was one of those unique exceptions forced by the pandemic, and definitely not a commercially desirable or viable solution for longer term.
Yes, Arctic Rally Finland was a replacement for Rally Finland. It may or may not be replaced again, and if it is it will still be a "World Rally Championship event" just as it was last year.
No, it was not. The 70th anniversary event of Rally Finland 2021 was run in the beginning of October, later than it's usual spot in August. Elfyn Evans won. Arctic (WRC) Rally Finland 2021 was held in late February on the spot the Swedish Rally would have been in (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Arctic_Rally_Finland). So there were two WRC events in Finland in 2021. To make things more confusing, there is an Arctic Rally Finland every year, this year it's a week from now, but it is a national event. It was also held last year at the same time in mid-January, but then they gave the same name also to the WRC event. 2022 WRC calendar is pretty clear on this, with the Swedish Rally taking place 24th-27th of February and Rally Finland returning to it's traditional schedule on 4th-7th of August.
I said Finland twice. I meant to say it was a replacement for Sweden. It was a WRC event. It does not matter if it was only once or annually or even if there were two events in the same country - it was a WRC event and points were earned
My original point to the Pacenotes edition was that the 2022 WRC race calendar is not going to take the competitors to "the snow-covered forests of Finland" again. It's either "the snow-covered forests of Sweden" in February, or the "sunny and mosquito-covered forests of Finland" in August. Over and out.
I hate to pick nits, but, while great, Arctic Rally Finland is not a World Rally Championship event, even though WRC-spec cars are allowed and indeed necessary for winning the overall event. This is because the Neste Rally Finland is a more established World-class race held in August, and it wouldn't fly to have two WRC rallies in the same country every year. The main WRC Series winter event is the Swedish Rally, which follows Monte Carlo in the calendar.
https://www.wrc.com/en/championship/calendar/wrc/wrc-arctic-rally-finland/overview/
Added last year.
I think it's a website update cockup on WRC's part. The series calendar for 2022 does not list Arctic Rally, just the Monte Carlo and the Swedish rally before April: https://www.wrc.com/en/championship/calendar/wrc/ Also the link to Arctic Rally homepage on the page you linked directs to Rally Finland website. All this confusion is yet another result of Covid, because the Swedish Rally 2021 was canceled because of it, and the Arctic Rally Finland was a temporary last-minute substitution to get one snow rally into the calendar.
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/rally-finland-secures-two-year-wrc-extension/
Yeah, but Rally Finland (I prefer the original "1000 Lakes Rally") is different from Arctic Rally Finland. That press release is from September ´21, and makes very vague references to Arctic Rally. It is theoretically possible that omicron will force another rearrangement, but it's a rapidly diminishing possibility, as there's no sign that the Swedish Rally would be canceled. A year ago the decision to cancel Sweden had been done in December 2020, and the decision to run a winter WRC event using the same stages and organization as an earlier Finnish national championship event was a done deal in mid-January when the national rally took place (https://arcticrally.fi/en/2021/01/18/wrc-arctic-rally-finland/). Having two WRC rallies in the same country was one of those unique exceptions forced by the pandemic, and definitely not a commercially desirable or viable solution for longer term.
Yes, Arctic Rally Finland was a replacement for Rally Finland. It may or may not be replaced again, and if it is it will still be a "World Rally Championship event" just as it was last year.
No, it was not. The 70th anniversary event of Rally Finland 2021 was run in the beginning of October, later than it's usual spot in August. Elfyn Evans won. Arctic (WRC) Rally Finland 2021 was held in late February on the spot the Swedish Rally would have been in (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Arctic_Rally_Finland). So there were two WRC events in Finland in 2021. To make things more confusing, there is an Arctic Rally Finland every year, this year it's a week from now, but it is a national event. It was also held last year at the same time in mid-January, but then they gave the same name also to the WRC event. 2022 WRC calendar is pretty clear on this, with the Swedish Rally taking place 24th-27th of February and Rally Finland returning to it's traditional schedule on 4th-7th of August.
I said Finland twice. I meant to say it was a replacement for Sweden. It was a WRC event. It does not matter if it was only once or annually or even if there were two events in the same country - it was a WRC event and points were earned
Yes, indeed it was. For 2021.
My original point to the Pacenotes edition was that the 2022 WRC race calendar is not going to take the competitors to "the snow-covered forests of Finland" again. It's either "the snow-covered forests of Sweden" in February, or the "sunny and mosquito-covered forests of Finland" in August. Over and out.