The WRC Rally takes over Chile! This is what you need to know
In 2019, Chile will host the WRC Rally, a show of motorsports that every year adds more followers from Latin America
In May of this year, it was confirmed that the Dakar Rally will not pass through Chile, according to Ahora Noticias. However, before the perseverance of the motorized athletes and thanks to the General Producer of the Mobil Rally National Championship, Felipe Horta, the dream of holding an orbital contest crystallized with the World Rally WRC, which will take place in 2019.
Leer en español: ¡Chile recibirá el Rally WRC! Esto es lo que debes saber
The event, endorsed by the International Automobile Federation, will have three Latin American countries on its calendar for next year: Mexico (March 10), Argentina (April 28) and Chile (May 12), the latter leaving in the road to Japan, destination that was being strongly supported by the Toyota brand.
The WRC Commission, headed by managing director Oliver Ciesla, assured the Mobil Rally that "it is not about Chile or Japan, only that next year we could not have another date. The agreement with the promoters is for three years because the investments are large and you need at least a period so that everything works."
What is it about?
The road to host the World Championship began in 2012 when the Chilean national rally dared to bet on R-category cars, replacing the N series, as La Tercera explains. According to the same media, this in the future allowed him to launch the candidacy for the world contest, taking the first approaches in 2016.
From that moment negotiations began and this year the Commission traveled to Concepcion to see the validity of the local tournament, enchanting the executives of the FIA and confirming for 2019 the presence of great stars of motorsport, among which are:
- The French Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier
- The Belgian Thierry Neuville
- The Finn Jari-Matti Latvala
- The Estonian Ott Tanak
The Chileans are not far behind and will have among their maximum exponents Jorge Martínez, Cristóbal Vidaurre and Francisco 'Chaleco' López, concludes La Tercera.
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The WRC: a motorsport event comparable to Formula One
The WRC World Championship, a tournament comparable to the Formula One of off-road cars, had more than 4.1 million viewers in 2017, while on television there were more than 850 million people on the planet who sat in front of a screen to watch it, according to the figures delivered by RallyMobil.
However, the highest views were recorded on YouTube, where more than 25 million fans played and watched the video of the competitions, with more than "2.5 million fans on Facebook", as highlighted on the website. In this way, it becomes "a first class showcase for Concepción, Chile and RallyMobil".
With this approval of the FIA, Chile is promoted as one of the favorite destinations of motorsports, after receiving the Dakar Rally, the Formula E, the Atacama Solar Race, among other events that put the southern country in the sports calendars of the world.
LatinAmerican Post | Jorge Hernández
Translated from "¡Chile recibirá el Rally WRC! Esto es lo que debes saber"
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