African Rally Championship 2026 — From Contraction to Counterattack
Mauritius out, Ivory Coast in. The tectonic shifts in the ARC calendar and what national federations are really saying
The African Rally Championship faced a double challenge in 2024 and 2025: round count reduction and financial difficulty. The 2026 season is presenting a different picture. Mauritius has left the calendar, but Ivory Coast has joined as a new member, and both Kenya and Uganda have strengthened their administrative frameworks. WSJ reports on the ARC's attempt to reverse its contraction, drawing on conversations with national federations.
The ARC contracted from eight rounds in 2023 to five in 2025. The principal financial challenge is the rising cost of air freight for competing teams moving between nations. The logistics cost inflation that has persisted since the post-COVID period of 2022–24 has raised vehicle transport costs by an average of 40 percent against 2020 levels, making rounds that include island venues — Mauritius and Réunion — particularly difficult to sustain. The Mauritius Motorsport Federation formally announced its temporary withdrawal from the ARC calendar in February this year, stating that it would be unable to return until financial sustainability had been re-established.
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