Introduced in 1991, Renault Clio will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year. For three decades now, the generations have succeeded one another on the special stages with undeniable success and the Clio Trophy France today enjoys a privileged position on the French rally scene as it has accelerated the careers of young hopefuls or relaunched those of drivers eager for excitement.

The adventure continues on Tarmac

Launched this year, New Clio Rally has attracted more than 50 crews over the entire season and has once again established itself as a benchmark category with the largest field in the FFSA French Tarmac Rally Championship.

Given the growing popularity of the current formula, the Clio Trophy France Tarmac will retain all its strengths with a car having exceptional reliability, controlled operating costs and the same levels of support and sporting and technical equities that have made its reputation. The calendar will consist of five rounds, where the four best results will be taken into account for the general classification.

Get ready for the Gravel Trophy !

Based on Clio R.S. Line, whose lines and the 4-cylinder 1.3 TCe 16-valve engine it uses, New Clio Rally has also shown the efficiency of its versatile chassis with promising performances on gravel with Florian Bernardi and Jean-Sébastien Vigion.

With this potential, the Rally version will thus take on this surface as part of a dedicated trophy that will be contested over four events : Clio Trophy France Gravel. The three best results of the season will be retained to determine the winner of this inaugural edition.

The final calendars for these two independent trophies will be announced at the Rallye du Var and the most ambitious competitors can already expect to be able to enter simultaneously on both surfaces thanks to complementary calendars offering no date conflicts.

Like this year, the distribution of the prize and bonus scheme promises to be very attractive by being spread out in several categories on Tarmac : General, Juniors and Gentlemen, as well as the team classification and the Renault Dealership Challenge. The latter two will also be deployed for the first campaign of the Gravel trophy while the general classification will too have a substantial award package.

In addition to France, New Clio Rally will continue to feature in dedicated trophies in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, but also in open competition as it has done since the beginning of the year.

Benoit Nogier, Renault Sport Racing Commercial Director : "Faced with the undeniable commercial and sporting successes of New Clio Rally, the renewal of the Clio Trophy France Tarmac is a continuation of the work we’ve done in feeder series for many decades while taking into account the health and economic context with a more reasonable five-round schedule. This year, we were also able to witness all the reliability and potential of New Clio Rally on Gravel with an unanimous and enthusiastic feedback from the drivers who took up the challenge of the French Gravel Rally Championship. Faced with the ever-increasing demand from a large number of actors on this surface, we have decided to launch a second independent trophy on gravel. This should once again highlight all the versatility of New Clio Rally and we are looking forward to another exciting season both on Tarmac and on Gravel !"