The 2023 European Rally Championship is the 71st season of the FIA European Rally Championship, the European continental championship series in rallying. The season is also the tenth following the merge between the European Rally Championship and the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. Efrén Llarena was the reigning champion.
Racing calendar
ERC Rally Serras de Fafe e Felgueiras – 2023
Felgueiras / 11 - 12 March 2023
After rally-mad Fafe hosted the all-asphalt Rally Fafe Montelongo in 2020, last season marked the first time that the long-standing, gravel-based Rally Serras de Fafe e Felgueiras was part of the European schedule. This year’s 35th running of the event, a mainstay of the Portuguese championship, signals the start of the 2022 ERC season when the highlight will undoubtedly be the Lameirinha stage complete with the iconic Pedra Sentada jump, which has been part of rallying folklore for decades. And following the success of the 2021 edition, organisers are planning limited changes as they stick to a winning formula.
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Racing calendar
ERC 79th Rally Poland – 2023
Mikołajki / 20 June 2023 - 21 June 2021
One of the world’s oldest rallies returned to the ERC roster in 2018 after a five-year break as Rally Poland replaced Rally Rzeszow as the country’s round of the European championship for its 75th edition. First run in 1921, Rally Poland’s home since 2005 has been Mikołajki in the picturesque Masurian lake district, a three-hour drive north from the capital Warsaw, where high-speed all-gravel stages are commonplace. And it was in Mikołajki where Kajetan Kajetanowicz first emerged as a major force in the ERC, taking the event win in 2013 prior to beginning his record-breaking title treble sequence in 2015.
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Racing calendar
ERC Tet Rally Liepāja – 2023
Latvia / 17 - 18 June 2023
The brainchild of driver turned promoter Raimonds Strokšs and first run to great acclaim in 2013, Rally Liepāja was originally a winter event but switched to autumn in 2016 for more guaranteed weather. The new date effectively made for an all-new rally as crews adjusted to gravel roads free of snow and ice. Although the time of year had changed, the high-speed stages in western Latvia continued to thrill drivers and spectators alike. Organisers of this forward-thinking event made more changes for 2019 with a late May date and an expanded route taking in popular stages around the Talsi region.
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Racing calendar
ERC Royal Rally of Scandinavia – 2023
Sweden / 18 - 20 November 2021
The trio of races on dirt surfaces ends with the new entry of the Royal Rally of Scandinavia. The race should retrace the special stages used by the World Championship in the years in which the Swedish race was based in Torsby, therefore a race with average speeds that could touch 110 km/h is announced.
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Racing calendar
ERC Rally di Roma Capitale – 2023
Rome / 29 - 30 July 2023
The progression of this asphalt event from Max Rendina’s Motorsport Italia organisation, is impressive. Having first run in 2013, Rally di Roma Capitale made its ERC debut in 2017 as Italy returned to the European championship for the first time since 2013 when Rallye Sanremo was on the calendar. It proved a big hit and continues to flourish. While COVID-19 restrictions meant no visit to Ostia for the seaside superspecial in 2019, the popular stages around Pico to the far south east of event hub Fiuggi remained. By also counting as an Italian championship round, local participation is often strong.
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Racing calendar
ERC Barum Czech Rally Zlín – 2023
South Moravian / 19 - 20 August 2023
Ever-present on the ERC schedule since the championship’s streamlining in 2004, Barum Czech Rally Zlín is based in the South Moravian university city, 300 kilometres south of the Czech capital Prague. It is a Tarmac test like no other due to the bumpy and sometimes broken nature of the road surface. To add to the challenge, several stages feature high-speed blasts through forests and intermittent showers are always possible. While the weather might be hard to predict, huge numbers of fans follow the action, especially on the opening night-time Zlín superspecial stage. The long-term ERC rally turns 50 in 2021.
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Racing calendar
ERC IV. Rally Hungary – 2023
Nyíregyháza / 07 - 08 October 2023
Hungary returned to the ERC for the first time since 2003 with a new sealed-surface event in Nyíregyháza delivering an action-packed 2019 European title decider, which was settled on the very last stage in Chris Ingram’s favour. While the event in the north-east of the country was effectively brand new for 2018, when it ran as the Nyíregyháza Rally and formed a pilot event for future ERC inclusion, the city and surrounding region were regulars on the national scene in previous years. The stages feature fast and narrow sections, although rain and mud provided an unwanted additional challenge in 2019.
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BRC Racing Team
Drivers - BRC Racing Team
Hayden Paddon
Date of birth:
20 April 1987
Nation:
New Zealand
Hayden Paddon (born 20 April 1987) is a New Zealand rally driver. He was PWRC world champion in 2011 and won the New Zealand Rally Championship in 2008, 2009, 2013, 2018 and 2021.
In 2007 he made his World Rally Championship debut competing in the Production World Rally Championship category at his home event in New Zealand as a wildcard entry.
Paddon’s 2011 PWRC season proved to be a breakthrough as he took 1st place in four rallies consecutively: Portugal, Argentina, Finland and Australia, where he became 2011 P-WRC Champion.
The 2012 season saw Paddon move to the S-WRC championship in a Škoda Fabia S2000.
2014 saw Paddon’s first stage win in the World Rally Championship during the Rally Catalunya in Spain.
In 2015, Paddon took his first ever lead of a WRC event in the Rally d’Italia.
In 2016, on the 4th round, the YPF Rally Argentina, Paddon took his – and New Zealand’s – first WRC win by 13.3 seconds from Sébastien Ogier.
In March 2022, Hayden Paddon teamed up with Hyundai New Zealand to enter a car into WRC2.
In 2023 Hayden Paddon will compete in the ERC championship in a car run by BRC Racing Team.
Drivers - Team MRF Tyres
John Rowan
Date of birth:
11 February 1959
Nation:
New Zealand
John Kennard (born 11 February 1959) is a rally co-driver born in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Kennard has been a co-driver to numerous drivers, the most notable being Hayden Paddon at Hyundai motorsport. They had their first win at Rally Argentina in 2016. In the 2023 Kennard will be Hayden Paddon’s co-driver.
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