Image by Ebrey/LAT
WEC moves 2019 Fuji, Shanghai races to avoid schedule clashes
The 2019-2020 World Endurance Championship rounds at Fuji and Shanghai International Circuit have been moved in the final version of the calendar presented to the FIA Endurance Commission, avoiding a clash with the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix.
Originally, the Japanese Grand Prix clashed with the WEC round at Fuji (October 13, 2019), meaning two FIA World Championships were due to run in the same country on the same weekend. The WEC promotor and circuit organizers felt a change was necessary, resulting in them moving the race forward a week to Sunday October 6.
In turn, the schedule changes also erases a clash between the 6 Hours of Fuji and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's season-ending Petit Le Mans.
The 4 Hours of Shanghai date has also been moved to Nov. 10, giving an extra week for freight transfer between Japan and China and also avoiding a clash with the popular Macau Grand Prix event.
we announced at Silverstone
,” said Gerard Neveu, CEO of the WEC.“But, following the F1 calendar publication, we have modified two dates. The knock-on benefit of this is that we will now avoid a clash with both IMSA’s Petit Le Mans and the Macau GT event which is a bonus for both competitors and fans of endurance racing around the world.”
The FIA WEC 2019-2020 calendar will be submitted to the FIA World Motor Sport Council for approval in Paris on 12th October.
2019-2020 FIA World Endurance Championship Calendar*
September 1, 2019 4 Hours of Silverstone (Great Britain)
October 6, 2019 6 Hours of Fuji (Japan)
November 10, 2019 4 Hours of Shanghai (China)
December 14, 2019 8 Hours of Bahrain (Bahrain)
February 1, 2020 6 Hours of Sao Paulo (Brazil)
March 2020 1000 Miles of Sebring (8 hours) (USA) **
May 2, 2020 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium)
June 13-14, 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans
* Subject to approval by the FIA World Motor Sport Council
** To be confirmed
Stephen Kilbey
UK-based Stephen Kilbey is RACER.com's FIA World Endurance Championship correspondent, and is also Deputy Editor of Dailysportscar.com He has a first-class honours degree in Sports Journalism and is a previous winner of the UK Guild of Motoring Writers Sir William Lyons Award.
Read Stephen Kilbey's articles
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