The World Motor Sport Council has today approved a series of adjustments to the sporting regulations of the 2013 FIA European Rallycross Championship.

The changes have been made in line with proposals made by the Off-Road Commission at its meeting on 31 January.

Exclusive rights of exploitation of the titles of the FIA Rallycross Championships, including over the possible future “FIA World Rallycross Championship”, are held by series promoter IMG. IMG’s ten-year contract to promote the championship also includes two consecutive options for five-year renewal of the rights.

The regulatory adjustments approved by the World Motor Sport Council, and which come into effect immediately, are as follows:

a)      To postpone the deadline for permanent drivers’ registration to 17 February 2013 and to reduce the entry fees by £2,000 in the SuperCar category (£13,000 instead of £15,000);

b)      To open entry to all non-permanent SuperCar drivers, without any restrictions, by removing the quota of 3 "guest" drivers per event and to set entry fees per event at £800;

c)       To halve the entry fees per event for drivers in the Super1600 and TouringCar support categories (£300 instead of £600);

d)      To reduce the number of events from 10 to 9, removing the Irish event (scheduled at Mondello Park on 18 August) from the 2013 calendar;

e)      To replace the "round robin" qualifying system for the SuperCar category by a system based heavily on the traditional qualifying format for Rallycross (with two differences: total number of qualifying heats increased from 3 to 4 and championship points awarded to the top 16 qualified drivers). The continuation of the events beyond qualifying, consisting in a final phase comprising two Semi-Finals and one Final, remains unchanged.

f)       To apply this new event format to the Super1600 and TouringCar support categories.

g)      To introduce finish prize money per event in the SuperCar category.

2013 FIA European Rallycross Championship calendar:

01.04.2013          Lydden Hill (GBR)

28.04.2013          Montalegre (PRT)

26.05.2013          Nyirad (HUN)

09.06.2013          Kouvola (FIN)

16.06.2013          Hell (NOR)

07.07.2013          Höljes (SWE)

01.09.2013          Lohéac (FRA)*

15.09.2013          Greinbach (AUT)

22.09.2013          Buxtehude (FRA)

*subject to the homologation of the circuit

For Media information purpose – No regulatory value.