World Endurance Championship organisers have brought forwards the date of the 2019 6 Hours of Fuji to avoid a clash with Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix.
WEC published its provisional 2019/20 calendar with the round at Fuji listed on October 13 – the corresponding weekend as the upcoming 2018 event.
Formula 1’s 2018 Japanese Grand Prix will take place on October 7, thus avoiding a clash with WEC, but next year’s event has been pushed back to October 13.
WEC organisers explained that “it was apparent to the WEC Promoter and Fuji Speedway that a change would have to be made”, and the 2019 round has now been moved to October 6.
The following event in China has also been moved by a week to November 10, thus avoiding a clash with the prestigious Macau Grand Prix.
“Our 2019-2020 season calendar features the same venues and race lengths we announced at Silverstone,” explained Gérard 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 2019/20 WEC season will begin with the 4 Hours of Silverstone on September 1, followed by the six- and four-hour events at Fuji and Shanghai respectively.
Bahrain will host an eight-hour race on 14 December, while Brazil’s return will take place at Interlagos on February 1 2020.
The 1000 Miles of Sebring will take place on a to-be-confirmed date in March, while the season will conclude with the 6 Hours of Spa (2 May) and the Le Mans 24 Hours (13-14 June).
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