European Historic Sporting Rally Championship Event Preview
The 2019 European Historic Sporting Rally Championship event dates are in our extensive motorsport calendar, the 2019 championship featuring nine rounds in six European countries. Some are well established events on the EHSRC calendar, with one, the Rallye Weiz in Austria, making its debut on the schedule.
The series plays host to a wide range of cars, from Touring Cars and GTs of the ‘50s and ‘60s to Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the 1970s and finally the rapid Group A, B and N cars of the ’1980s. The season gets underway in one week’s time with the Rally Moritz Costa Brava and concludes in October with the 53rd running of the Mecsek Rallye in Hungary, and we have a brief run-down of each event.
Round 1: 67th Rally Costa Brava (Spain)
Date: 15-16 March
Rally: Asphalt
Rally HQ: Girona
The Rally Moritz Costa Brava, the oldest rally in Spain, is renowned for its history and brings together more than 150 teams from all over the world each year. With magnificent machines from every era of European rallying, the Rally Moritz Costa Brava is considered one of the best continental historic rallies.
Round 2: 28th Historic Vltava Rallye (Czech Republic)
Date: 26-27 April
Rally: Asphalt
Rally HQ: Janovice nad Úhlavou
Janovice nad Úhlavou is a small town in the Klatovy district of the Czech Republic. The total distance of the Historic Vltava Rallye, including the 158km of special stages, is 558.51 km.
It is usually the rally on the EHRSC calendar that is the best attended by the crews who enter the FIA Championship, including a lot of Nordic competitors.
Round 3: 11th Rally Asturias Histórico (Spain)
Date: 23-25 May
Rally: Asphalt
Rally HQ: Pravia
Held in Northern Spain in and around the city of Pravia, the 2019 event will be the 11th running of the Rally Asturias Histórico.
Round 4: Ypres Historic Rally (Belgium)
Date: 26-29 June
Rally: Asphalt
Rally HQ: Ypres
The rally takes place in the area of Ypres, close to battlefields of the World War I. The route is consisting mostly of twisty farming lanes, challenging to both cars and crews and be it in modern or in historic, the local drivers have the reputation as difficult to beat on these specific stages.
Round 5: Rallye Weiz (Austria)
Date: 18-20 July
Rally: Asphalt
Rally HQ: Weiz
In 2019 the Rallye Weiz will be part of the FIA European Historic Sporting Rally Championship for the first time, after a successful observation of the event by FIA officials in 2018.
Round 6: Lahti Historic Rally (Finland)
Date: 9-10 August
Rally: Gravel
Rally HQ: Lahti
The Lahti Historic Rally is the northernmost competition in the FIA European Historic Sporting Rally Championship calendar and is also the only gravel rally on the schedule. An event appreciated by the competitors, who get in this rally some flavour of the famous 1000 Lakes Rally and the renowned Finnish jumps and forest stages.
Round 7: 24th Rally Alpi Orientali (Italy)
Date: 29-31 August
Rally: Asphalt
Rally HQ: Martignacco
The Rally Alpi Orientali takes place in north east Italy in and around Udine and features over 130km of special stages in breathtaking scenery close to the border with Slovenia.
Round 8: XXXI Rally Elba Storico (Italy)
Date: 19-21 Sept
Rally: Asphalt
Rally HQ: Capoliveri
The penultimate round of the 2019 championship will take place on the Italian island of Elba with competitors taking in the scenery during the 400km, a third of which are special stages, they will undertake to reach the finish line.
Round 9: 53rd Mecsek Rallye (Hungary)
Date: 11-13 Oct
Rally: Asphalt
Rally HQ: Pécs
Pécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. Once again Pécs plays host to the season finale of the FIA European Historic Sporting Rally Championship.
