Rally Kazakhstan cancelled for 2022

[advrider]

A couple of years after COVID-19 threw motorcycle racing for a sideways spin, the war in Ukraine is doing the same now. Rally Kazakhstan is now cancelled for 2022, with organizers scrambling for a replacement.

Rally Kazakhstan was supposed to be the next big event on this year’s rally raid schedule, with car/4×4 organizations challenging the April 25-30 event along with motorcycles. Now, the FIM and the other orgs involved have all pulled out, blaming the war in Ukraine (without actually coming right out and saying so).

The current international situation has forced the organizer of the Rally Kazakhstan, round three of the FIA & FIM World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), to cancel its 2022 edition, which was due to take place from 25 to 30 April.

As a result, the next W2RC round will take place from 7 to 12 June at the Andalucía Rally in Spain, and will be followed by Morocco’s Rallye du Maroc from 7 to 12 October 2022. In view of this situation, all stakeholders of the discipline – the FIA, FIM, the teams and W2RC promoter A.S.O. – are now jointly considering a number of possible replacements to host a fifth and final round, to be held at the end of the season. The Rally Kazakhstan will be fully restored to the 2023 calendar*.

* subject to approval by the World Motor Sport Council and FIM Board of Directors.

Note that last asterisk. Like other major moto events in recent years, there’s been a lot of disruption, and it seems very foolish to predict any sort of stability in the days ahead. However, it is certainly encouraging to see the organizers are at least hoping to add another event to the end of this year’s schedule, to make up for the missing race.

Of course, this follows news of FIM sanctions against Russian and Belarusian racers in recent days, as well as cancellation of FIM events in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Expect more announcements like this in the days ahead.

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