Could top-level rally racing return to the United States for the first time since 1988?

• A stop on the The World Rally Championship (WRC) may return to the United States.
• In June, FIA officials will arrive to visit locations in Tennessee and Kentucky and attend an American Rally Association event.
• There hasn’t been a WRC event held in the US since 1988, but the rally has a long history on this side of the Atlantic

Today, every top-tier World Rally Championship vehicle has four-wheel drive, but one of the sport’s curious footnotes is that the technology was briefly banned. A wide audience is familiar with how Audi changed the game with its turbocharged Ur-Quattro coupe, but Audi had to convince the FIA ​​to allow all-wheel drive to return to the WRC as a lumbering beast’s victory had previously forced a rule change.

That vehicle was a white Jeep Wagoneer amusingly called ‘Moby Dick 1’ and instead of a steely-eyed European bigwig at the wheel, it was driven by a bear-sized cop from Michigan named Gene Henderson. In 1972, at the FIA-sanctioned Press On Regardless rally on the muddy forest roads of Michigan, Henderson wrestled his 400-horsepower Wagoneer to outright victory over a field of Lancias, Datsuns and Alpines.

Nice stuff, but there hasn’t been an American WRC event on the calendar since 1988. Now a change could be coming as the FIA ​​has announced a candidate event to be held in Kentucky in June this year. Thanks to a collaboration with the Automobile Competition Committee of the US (ACCUS), the event would be the prelude to a full WRC round as early as 2027.

As a partnership, a proper WRC event on American soil would be huge for both the North American rally community and an opportunity for the FIA ​​to attract a new audience. The latter should look at the recent growth and success of Formula 1 in the United States.

For the American Rallying Association (ARA), events have long had a more grassroots feel. Part of the appeal of attending a rally is buying a ticket with your feet, walking outside to set up a camp chair along the stage and cheering as the cars fly by. Compared to the arm’s-length feeling and high costs associated with attending an F1 race, getting close to a rally is much more accessible.

The FIA ​​delegation will tour planned event sites in Tennessee and Kentucky and then attend an ARA event to see how things might play out. There will be meetings between officials from both sides of the Atlantic, and a chance to sort out the details.

If you grew up watching low-resolution videos of Tommi Mäkinen’s Mitsubishi battling it out with Colin McRae’s Subaru, or playing Sega Rally at the arcade, the potential for a return of a US stop on the WRC calendar couldn’t be more exciting. You have to think there would be some sort of demonstration class and support classes that local rally teams could also participate in.

Expect the Subaru owners in the crowd to cheer in June when the FIA ​​team gives the green light after their visit. We hope this will be the case: America has waited too long to get back into the mud.

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Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, BC, Canada. He grew up on British cars, came of age in the golden age of Japanese sports compact performance, and started writing about cars and people in 2008. His special interest is in the intersection between man and machine, whether it concerns the racing career of Walter Cronkite or the half-century-long obsession of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to constantly buy Hot Wheels.