The same promoter manages both the ERC and the WRC. While the WRC has traditionally featured one winter event—Rally Sweden—the ERC has not hosted a snow rally for several years.
The last time the ERC included winter events was in 2015, with Austria’s Jänner Rallye and Latvia’s Rally Liepaja.
Simon Larkin, WRC Promoter’s Event Director, hinted that this could soon change.
“We would like to add a snow rally to the ERC, and at the moment we are looking at the possibility of making this happen in 2026,” Larkin said during Rally Japan.
For a true winter rally, attention naturally turns to the north, where snowy conditions are guaranteed. One of the strongest candidates for an ERC winter round is Finland’s Arctic Lapland Rally, commonly known as Tunturiralli, held in Rovaniemi.
According to our sources at RallyJournal.com, Finland’s national motorsport federation, AKK, has already considered the idea. In November, AKK leadership met with members of the Rovaniemi and Kemijärvi city councils to discuss the project.
Efforts to bring the Arctic Lapland Rally into the ERC are not new. In 2022, the event’s organising committee chair, Heikki Poranen, stated that the rally could join the ERC “immediately” if needed. However, he noted that gaining ERC status might not add significant value to the iconic Arctic rally.
Tunturiralli was part of the ERC until 2003. More recently, in 2021, Rovaniemi hosted a WRC event when Rally Sweden was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Next year’s Arctic Lapland Rally is scheduled for late January and early February, serving as the second round of the 2025 Finnish Rally Championship.
