Rally Islas Canarias has made contact with its 44th edition with the celebration this Monday of its official presentation, an act that has taken place for the first time at the Gran Canaria Arena, very close to the place where, from the beginning of the next week the teams will take positions in the service park of the Estadio de Gran Canaria. With full institutional representation, this act has reviewed the highlights of the event that will be held on November 26, 27 and 28. As main data, entries was closed this past Saturday with a hundred teams, 44 international teams, 20 nationalities represented and a total of 40 R5 cars, a record number in the history of the Rally Islas Canarias and above the average of this 2020 season of the FIA ​​European Rally Championship. Gran Canaria will also be the closing date of the Spanish Rallychampionship of Spain (S-CER), the Spanish Asphalt Rally Championship (CERA), the Canary Islands Asphalt Rally Championship and the Las Palmas province. 

The institutional support available to the most international automobile event of how many will be held in Spain in 2020 within the modality of rallies was materialized in the presence of those responsible for the main public entities. Starting with Ángel Víctor Torres, president of the Government of the Canary Islands, who celebrated in his speech that an event of this level will be held "on an island that is on a green traffic light and that is a window to the world of sports and also tourism, of the economic generation and of the joy of those who love this world of motoring”. "What we do is put a grain of sand in something that is part of the idiosyncrasy and the history of the Canary Islands, public administrations, institutions and also private ones," Torres added. 

Antonio Morales, president of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, an institution committed to the Rally Islas Canarias for another year, said that it is "a tremendous joy" to be able to celebrate the dispute of an event of these characteristics "at a time like the present with the difficulties that exist". Morales congratulated the organizer for having won the consideration of the international and national federations and highlighted the role that "having had an extraordinary school of drivers that has managed to create a faithful hobby and tradition" and recalled the need to comply "scrupulously with all the measures established to guarantee security and to transmit to the world that in the Canary Islands, with the help of citizens, security forces, public institutions and essential services, joining forces, they have managed to curb transmission levels”. "We are showing the world, millions of people, the ability of a territory to organize an event of these characteristics with the complexities that exist," he added. 

For his part, Augusto Hidalgo, mayor of the municipality that hosts this event, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, said that the Rally Islas Canarias is "the most important sporting event held on the island of Gran Canaria and in the Canary Islands to throughout the year, the one with the most media impact internationally”. In addition, he valued "the capacity of all administrations, public and private entities", something that, he said, "is an adaptation test to expose to the world that we are capable of carrying out events of this caliber". Regarding the change of date caused by the pandemic, the mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria assured that "it has its difficulties, but at the same time its opportunities." "From the City Council we are going to continue betting on this event", concluded Hildalgo.  

Jean-Baptiste Ley, coordinator of the ERC, wanted to be at this event even if it was virtually. Through a video, he stated that this edition could not be held "without the hard work done by its Organizing Committee during the last six months" and recalled that the event "under the health protocols provided by the FIA ​​and national authorities." The person in charge of the championship was very satisfied that "the best European drivers" are going to meet in Gran Canaria. 

Manuel Aviñó, president of the Royal Spanish Automobile Federation, pointed out –also through a video– that this edition of the Rally Islas Canarias is going to be “one of the best remembered in the history of this championship from the point of view of of the high participation, its quality and the fact that all the championships come into play”. Aviñó also had a message for the fans: “I have to ask them to be sensitive to the current circumstances. We have all shown together that sport has been responsible, protocols have been created, superhuman efforts have been made to move the championship forward, but we have to do our part. That the fans collaborate with the organization and do their bit so that it can get ahead with all the guarantees”, added the president of the RFEdeA, who conveyed his respect and admiration "to the organizing team for having been able to carry out this edition of the Rally Islas Canarias and its thanks to sponsoring institutions and companies”. 

Germán Morales, president of the Organizing Committee of the Rally Islas Canarias, thanked one by one the public and private entities that support this new edition and that are all represented in the official poster of the event, which, as a novelty, has as a central element a car of electric competition, the Opel Corsa e-Rally. "Getting here has not been easy," Morales explained. Having one hundred registered, with a R5 record, which is the great reference in terms of quality, is very good news”. Morales also had words of thanks to all the municipalities that collaborate with the event.