AUSTIN, Texas - The 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship schedule has been released, which sees the addition of Mexico City to the returning eight races to make a nine-race calendar.
Silverstone will take place on April 17 to kick off the campaign, before the championship moves to Spa-Francorchamps on May 7.
Next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans runs June 18-19.
The Nürburgring round returns on July 24, and then the entire month of August is left open before the schedule amplifies in September.
The Mexico City round will take place September 4, with Circuit of The Americas returning two weeks later on September 17.
Further flyaway rounds to Fuji (October 16), Shanghai (November 6) and Bahrain (November 19) conclude the season.
The Prologue test occurs March 25-26 at Paul Ricard, with the Le Mans Test Day on June 5.
CONFLICTS OF NOTE
While the WEC will run alongside IMSA’s newly renamed WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at COTA for a third consecutive year, it will have two head-to-head clashes with the North American domestic championship.
The Silverstone round will clash with both IMSA and, for that matter, Pirelli World Challenge at Long Beach the weekend of April 15-17.
Additionally, the Nürburgring round, moved forward from end of August to end of July, now falls on the same weekend as IMSA’s Lime Rock Park date, July 22-23. The Six Hours of Nürburgring will fall on the Sunday, though, while the Lime Rock PC/GTLM/GTD race will be Saturday, July 23.
While the Verizon IndyCar Series is yet to release its full 2016 calendar, it has a few clashes with the WEC as well, for any drivers or participants who may be interested in being a part of both championships.
As noted, the Long Beach/Silverstone clash affects these two series.
The Le Mans Test Day falls on the second day of the Detroit race weekend, June 5, as it did this year.
Meanwhile the last two rounds for now on IndyCar’s calendar - Boston on September 4 and Sonoma on September 18 - would coincide with WEC events.
The WEC is at Mexico City and COTA those two weekends.
The WEC’s Spa-Francorchamps round clashes with the Blancpain Sprint Series race weekend, May 6-8. It also clashes with the Blancpain Endurance Series finale, again, that September 17-18 weekend.