2015 World Rallycross calendar includes new Barcelona round

The 2015 World Rallycross Championship calendar features a shake-up in the order of events and the introduction of Formula 1 venue Barcelona replacing Kouvola in Finland.

The Spanish event will run as round nine of the series, just two weeks before returning to former F1 venue Istanbul Park in Turkey, which made its debut in the sport last month.

The season will begin at its traditional venue in Portugal, before heading to Belgium and Lydden Hill for the British round of the series. Scandinavian events in Sweden and Norway sandwich the Canadian round of the series at Trios Rivieres.

The Canadian event has been moved to the weekend following the famous GP3R circuit race, to form a week-long festival of motorsport. The move facilitates the return to a two-day World RX event. In 2014, the rallycross event was condensed to a one-day format for the heats and finals.

"The first running of the World Rallycross in Canada proved to be extremely popular with a lot of GP3R's fans," said Dominic Fugere, GP3R event promoter. "However, it was an enormous logistical challenge to squeeze all these categories and demonstrations done on two different track over the course of a single four day event.

"The fans did not have the chance to fully experience all of our series. By separating our traditional street racing activities from the rallycross and drift series, our visitors will be able to completely soak themselves in the experience of each form of motorsport that we present."

The World RX championship will conclude in Argentina: the final round of the 2014 series is due to take place at the new San Luis venue later this month. Former World Rally champion Petter Solberg has already sealed the drivers' crown.

The European Rallycross Championship will continue to run within five of the Europe-based events in Belgium, Germany, Norway, Spain and finish in Italy.

Support categories Super1600 and TouringCar will each run over fewer rounds in 2015, targeting events where the classes are strongest at national level. The single-make RX Lites formula will also return at selected rounds.