Car rally: Rally 24 cancelled due to heatwave

According to information from "DL", which the Dordogne Périgord team confirmed by email, the Rallye 24, which is taking place in Bassillac-et-Auberoche, has been canceled. Indeed, this Wednesday, August 13, the prefecture announced, via a press release, that it was prohibiting "access to forest areas for recreational and sporting activities from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. from Friday, August 15, 12:01 a.m. to Saturday, August 16, 11:59 p.m."

"The prefect's office called us," confides Gilles Marsac, communications officer for the Dordogne Périgord team. "The test stage was canceled on Saturday, and we then held a crisis meeting this Wednesday to decide whether to cancel the entire rally," adds Gilles Marsac. Indeed, with the prefecture having banned the public from the roadsides on Sundays, Philippe Rebière, the event president, and his team, considered canceling the event.

And the response was not long in coming: "Following today's prefectural decree, prohibiting all sporting events on Friday, August 15 and Saturday, August 16 until 11:59 p.m., and pending a decision from the Dordogne prefecture to cancel Rallye 24 or not on Sunday, August 17, the Dordogne Périgord team, not wanting to take financial risks, anticipates and cancels the 26th Rallye 24 Dordogne Périgord."

Postponed to the end of the year?

President Philippe Rebière is not resigned, however. He is expected to work with the French Motorsport Federation to find a date for the race to be added to the calendar by the end of the year.