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This weekend, Latvia will host a World Rally Championship stage for the first time. Around Liepāja, 20 tests will be held on gravel roads with a total length of 300 kilometers, but the rally will start with the first test on the Riga Bikernieki track at 20:05 on Thursday. ERR’s sports portal mediates the progress of the historic Latvian World Cup Rally with a live blog.
The rally around Liepaja has been part of the EC series since 2013 and was originally held on snowy roads in Latvia, but moved to early autumn in the 2016 rally calendar to become a gravel rally. The first event was held in Liepaja in the summer five years ago.
Essentially, this year the Latvian Rally has swapped places with the Estonian Rally: the Estonian stage is part of the European Championship schedule, while the Liepāja Rally will this year get a taste of the WRC series. Next season, the Estonian Rally will once again be a world series stage. Latvia will become the 38th country to organize a World Cup stage rally.
Among them, two-time world champion Kalle Rovanperä and Oliver Solberg, who finished third in the WRC2 series this season, both gained experience in Latvia’s strong championship series, as no driver’s license is required to compete in the championships of our southern neighbor. Thus, Rovanperä became Latvian champion at the age of 16 and Solberg won the first of his two Liepāja Rally victories at the age of 17. Martinš Sesks, Latvia’s most famous rally driver, who has won many victories on Latvian roads in the past two years, made his debut in Poland in a Rally1 car and finished fifth.
But what’s the best way to describe the Latvian rally? “I think it’s somewhere between the Polish rally and the Estonian rally,” Rowan Pera told DirtFish. “The gravel roads are a bit different, but it should be a very fast rally anyway.” “The roads are very similar to those in Poland, where we had a successful Sunday. Compared to the soil, the roads are similar to those in Estonia,” Ott Tanak added in a Hyundai press release.
Tanak, who had to stop in Poland on Friday, went to the Estonian Rally to train physically before the Latvian Rally, but had a serious accident in the Latvian Rally and was taken to the hospital for examination together with the card reader Martin Järveoja. Before the Latvian race, the team members also had to go through the medical examination of the FIA, and just in case the Estonian did not pass the medical examination, the Hyundai team took Andreas Mikkelsen with them as a precaution, but the team and Tanak himself stressed that this was just a precautionary measure.
Toyota has four cars for the Latvia Rally, with Rovanperä, Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta starting. In addition to Tänak, Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi will drive Hyundai cars, while local heroes Sesks, Adrien Fourmaux and Gregoire Munster will drive M-Sport Fords.
Estonians Gregor Jeets – Timo Taniel (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) and Joosep Ralf Nõgene – Hendrik Kraav (Renault Clio Rally3) will also participate in Rally Latvia.
Latvia Rally Schedule
Thursday, July 18
7.31 – Testikatse Cimdenieki (3.58 km)
20.05 – SS1 Bikniki Circuit (11.00 km)
Friday, July 19
10.00 – SS2 Mirzkan 1 (4.99 km)
10.45 – SS3 Tukums 1 (27.56 km)
12.00 – SS4 Andumi (17.86 km)
14.30 – SS5 Mirzkan 2 (4.99 km)
15.15 – SS6 Tukums 2 (27.56 km)
16.30 – SS7 Strazd (17.44 km)
17.20 – SS8 Talsi (20.52 km)
Saturday, July 20
8.20 – SS9 Pierce Kearns (18.87 km)
9.35 – SS10 Snepelle (17.52 km)
11.30 – SS11 Evander (23.04 km)
13.05 – SS12 Vipils 1 (12.64 km)
Maintenance Rest
16.15 – SS13 Podniki (10.09 km)
17.05 – SS14 Vecpils 2 (12.64 km)
19.00 – SS15 Dinsdurbe (6.64 km)
20.15 – SS16 Liepaja City Stage (2.56 km)
Sunday, July 21
8.55 – SS17 Krogzemji 1 (18.70 km)
10.05 – SS18 Mazirmaggia 1 (13.34 km)
11.55 – SS19 Circuit 2 (18.70 km)
14.15 – SS20 Mazilmaja 2 (13.34 km) (point test)
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