The World Enduro Super Series has been launched for the 2018 season and will bring together some of the most iconic events on the calendar.

It will lead to a first world enduro champion being crowned at the end of the campaign, which begins in Portugal next May.

The WESS will include Hard Enduro, Classic Enduro, Cross-Country and Beach Racing-style events. Such events will keep their same format but with a new, uniformed points-scoring system across the board.

In all, the series will include eight events from the Extreme XL Lagares on May 11-13 to the season finale, Red Bull Knock Out in the Netherlands, on November 10.

WESS managing director Philipp Stossier said: “To us, enduro means many things but, most importantly, it represents inclusion of competitors, diversity of events and terrain and a considered mix of authenticity and modernity – all elements that sit at the heart of WESS.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel, we’re bringing together well-established endure competitions run the way they’ve always been run onto a larger communications platform to ensure endure sports receives the focused, global exposure it deserves.”

World Enduro Super Series schedule for 2018

Rnd 1. Extreme XL Lagares (Portugal) May 11-13

Rnd 2. Erzbergrodeo Red Bull Hare Scramble (Austria) May 31 – June 3
Rnd 3. Trefle Lozerien AMV (France) June 8-10
Rnd 4. Red Bull Romaniacs (Romania) July 24-28
Rnd 5. Red Bull 111 Megawatt (Poland) September (Date TBC)
Rnd 6. TBA
Rnd 7. Gotland Grand National (Sweden) October 26/27
Rnd 8. Red Bull Knock Out (The Netherlands) November 10