The Chilean WRC round has been cancelled

Chile’s round of the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship, scheduled for April 16-19, has been cancelled due to political and social unrest in the country.

Rally Chile was supposed to be the fourth round of the championship, a part of the Latin American tour together with Rally Mexico (March 12-15) and Rally Argentina (April 30-May 3).

Ott Tanak triumphed at 2019 Rally Chile

The organisers of the Concepcion-based event met with government officials on Thursday and agreed the 2020 event had to be cancelled. Rally Chile was held for the first time in 2018 as the WRC-candidate event and then, in 2019, it became the fixture in the championship calendar. The winner was Ott Tanak in a Toyota Yaris WRC.

With the loss of Rally Chile, the WRC calendar dropped again to 13 events. The original 2020 calendar featured 14 events,  for the first time since 2008. It would be difficult to replace Rally Chile in 2020 because of the logistical operations and costs needed to remove cars and equipment from Mexico to another part of the world and then again to Argentina.

Photos: Toyota Gazoo Racing,