On Friday, April 5, a press conference for the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) Tet Rally Latvia round took place in Riga Motor Museum’s conference room, with Riga Mayor Vilnis Ķirsis, Road Traffic Safety Directorate chairman Aivars Aksenoks, and head of Tet Rally Latvia Raimonds Strokšs presenting to the general public the rally activities planned in Riga and the first speed stage of Tet Rally Latvia, which will be held in the capital, with the start of this Latvia’s first WRC round set for the evening of 18 July, at the Biķernieki track.
This year, between 18 and 21 July, Latvia will become the 37th country to host a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), originally launched in 1973. Tet Rally Latvia will be the eighth round of the 2024 World Rally Championship season: before going to Riga, Tukums Municipality, Talsi and Talsi Municipality, Kuldīga Municipality, Dienvidkurzeme Municipality, and Liepāja, the world’s fastest rally crews will have also visited Monte Carlo, Sweden, Kenya, Croatia, Portugal, Italy, and Poland.
‘With the motorsport traditions that Latvia has, the country and its capital have long deserved to host such a high-profile sporting event as the World Rally Championship, which will take place here this summer. We are most excited to welcome the championship’s teams and their members, as well as motorsport fans from all over the world in Riga: it will be one of the biggest events of the entire summer, filling the city with a positive hum and rumble from its centre all the way to our outstanding Biķernieki track. We have decided to hold a true festival for the fans of the sport in Riga, offering them a chance to see the vehicles a week before the first speed stage and on the launch day, while in the heart of the city, at Doms Square, we will set up a fan zone with big screens for those who want to keep track the championship’s speed stages.
I am certain that this will be one of this summer’s biggest events, but there also are a few others to take place in Riga in the near future. My philosophy for the city is that it needs events of this scale. It is the city’s duty to make life here interesting, to attract tourists to enjoy its entertainment features, and contribute to our economy,’ Riga Mayor Vilnis Kirsis said.
This will not be the first time that the Biķernieki track hosts such a high-tier race. Between 2016 and 2022, the national sports facility was used to host a round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship. This year, one of the speed stages of the WRC Tet Rally Latvia round will be held at the Biķernieki Track, which will make it similar to another legendary circuit—Monza in Italy—in yet another way, as WRC speed stages were held there in 2020 and 2021.
Today’s press conference in Riga kicks off a series of activities in April during which Tet Rally Latvia’s representatives will visit all of the World Rally Championship host cities, each providing more information about what the respective cities and municipalities have planned, and offering a chance to conduct Q&As with the audiences.
The activities planned for Riga were presented at the Riga Motor Museum conference hall, with a special launch event on 11 July in Rātslaukums (Riga’s Town Square), which will be held exactly one week before the Tet Rally Latvia opening ceremony and the first start of the FIA World Rally Championship round in Latvia. A week later, at the same location in front of the Riga City Council building, the Tet Rally Latvia opening event will take place, offering the fans a chance to meet their heroes, get their autographs, and hear the drivers’ comments before the start. The crews will then join a parade through the Old Town to take a historic photo at the foot of the Freedom Monument.
Finally, all Tet Rally Latvia crews will go the Biķernieki track, for the actual sports part of the event, that is, the first speed stage whose route will include sections from all areas of the Biķernieki track: the drift track, the car and motorcycle circuit, the speedway stadium, the oval, as well as the rallycross and karting tracks. The SSS1 Biķernieki Track route will start at Turn Seventeen of the track, then lead past the permanent audience stands, through the twists and turns of the karting track to the speedway stadium. The route of the speed stage will then lead to the Elkoņa (Elbow) turn and the motorcycle circuit, including the tricky ‘Raganas katls’ (Witch’s Cauldron) series of turns, after which the crews will have deal with a road surface change entering the rallycross circuit, where they will complete two ramp jumps, the big one and one of the parallel ones. The crews are expected to complete the route twice, for a total distance of 10.80 km.
Following recent changes in the technical regulations of the FIA World Rally Championship, the use of hybrid electric motors is to be discontinued starting from the 2025 season, which will reduce the cost of the vehicles, and their overall power. This means that as Latvia hosts the FIA World Rally Championship for the first time, Tet Rally Latvia’s guests will get the chance to see the most powerful and fastest rally cars that WRC crews have ever competed in.
- Scheduled Tet Rally Latvia events in Riga
- THURSDAY, 11 JULY Tet Rally Latvia launch event in Riga, in front of Riga City Council building
- MONDAY, 15 JULY Tet Rally Latvia administrative inspection and familiarisation with SSS1 Biķernieki Track
- THURSDAY, 18 JULY Tet Rally Latvia opening and parade, Old Town and Freedom Monument
- THURSDAY, 18 JULY Tet Rally Latvia SSS1 Biķernieki Track
- THURSDAY, 18 JULY Tet Rally Latvia Parc fermé
- THURSDAY, 18 JULY Tet Rally Latvia Fan Zone, Doms Square
- FRIDAY, 19 JULY Tet Rally Latvia Fan Zone, Doms Square
- SATURDAY, 20 JULY Tet Rally Latvia Fan Zone, Doms Square
- SUNDAY, 21 JULY Tet Rally Latvia Fan Zone, Doms Square
