Rally Liepāja
Round 2 of the 2014 FIA European Rally Championship Rally Liepāja will take place from 31st January till 2nd February in Latvia, and will be organized by RA EVENTS. Rally Liepāja will also host the first two rounds of the 2014 Latvian Rally Championship. Along the snow/ice-covered roads of Liepāja and Kuldīga neighbourhoods both the foreign and the local sportsmen in two days of rally will have to cover 12 special stages with the total length of 240 km.
The 2014 ERC season will include 12 rounds, and the season will be divided in two parts – first and last six rounds; the total valuation of the Championship will be established by the four best results of each part. The 1st round of the Championship Jänner Rallye will be held from 3rd till 5th January in Austria; it will be followed by Rally Liepāja from 31st January till 2nd February. After the Latvian round of the Championship another winter event in Romania Sibiu Rally Romania will follow, and together the three rallies will compose a special ERC Ice Master valuation.
It is planned that the first teams will arrive in Latvia already on 28th January, to get used to local weather conditions and properly prepare for a successful start. The routing map of the rally envisages that the competition with the total distance of 240 km will start on Friday afternoon, when the Priority drivers will complete the Qualifying stage and select their starting positions. Later in the evening, the ceremonial start of the rally will be held in Liepāja city centre. On Saturday, Liepāja and Kuldīga neighbourhoods will give ground for the first six special stages after which the winners of the 1st LRC round will be established. On Sunday, the 3rd rally day, six concluding stages of Rally Liepāja are envisaged followed by awarding of the winners of the 2nd stages of both the European and Latvian Rally Championships.
Spectators will be able to follow Rally Liepāja not only at the event venue, but also in the Eurosport channel in 59 countries — at the end of each rally day broadcast about the Latvian round will be relayed, and on Tuesday it will be possible to see the event summary. In addition, in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia these broadcasts will be reaired by TV6 channel.