The World Rally Championship (WRC) will return to the United States in 2027, the series has announced, ending a 39-year absence from the American calendar. The event is scheduled for near the end of August.
A specific hosting region has not yet been confirmed. Those details, along with ticketing and guidance on how spectators can turn out for the first American WRC round in nearly four decades, are due on October 27th.
The most likely venue is a route linking Tennessee and Kentucky. That region was first floated for a WRC round back in 2023. The earlier concept never came to fruition as laid out, but the FIA confirmed a WRC candidate event there in January. The candidate rally ran successfully in June, opening the door to a full championship round in the same area next season.
The news is not doubt tied to the fact that Ford just announced it was re-joining WRC with a factory-backed team.
WRC’s most recent American round was Rally Olympus, which ran through Washington from 1986 to 1988. The event has survived since then as a national rally in various forms, run without interruption and now operated by the American Rally Association.
The confirmation gives American rally fans their first home-soil championship round since the Reagan era, though the full scope of the event remains tied to the forthcoming October 27th announcement. The successful completion of the June candidate event is the clearest signal yet that the Tennessee-Kentucky bid has cleared the FIA’s requirements, after the region’s earlier 2023 effort stalled.
“2027 represents the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the World Rally Championship, and this calendar reflects our ambition to build a stronger, more accessible and truly global championship,” said Éric Boullier, CEO of WRC Promoter. “Returning to the United States and United Kingdom, alongside bringing the WRC to an iconic destination such as Rome, creates tremendous opportunities for our manufacturers, commercial partners and fans. “Combined with the introduction of new technical regulations, we have a unique opportunity to shape the future of the WRC, attract new investment and bring the excitement of rallying to more people around the world.”