Words: Liga Stirna
The Saaremaa Rally is like a very beautiful yet strict princess: only the serious, brave and smart knights (read: drivers) may have her grace and love. She hates vanity and punishes daring; so many crashes in Saaremaa Rally, you won’t see in any this many in other rallies in the Baltics… But, when you get her favour (read: finish these fantastic, fast stages) you are the most happy person in the (rallying) world!
The Saaremaa Rally is one of the oldest in this region, and this year it celebrated its 43rd edition. After the collapse of USSR, when Estonia received independence, this event held on the Estonian island of Saaremaa in the Baltic Sea became open up for all drivers around the country. Because of these beautiful scenes, hard and fast yet tricky roads and fact that this is the very last rally of the season, the Saaremaa event is a highly popular one and organisers always reach their 150-car entry list.
Saaremaa Rally also is very democratic: here you can see all types of cars you just can imagine. From the latest S2000, Evo X and WRC to exotic Talbot TI 1,6, Ford Escort Mexico or the old Soviet trucks GAZ.
Typical of the Saaremaa Rally are short stages, except one – Undva: 22km of twisty, narrow roads through junipers at the beginning and fast, flowing sections along the seashore towards the end. For this year, however, this stage wasn’t included in the event as didn’t fit in with the itinerary and organizers pkanned to include new stages. Drivers had to tackle 14 stages, few of them new for most of the competitors. If you look at the event’s timetable, you might be surprised by stage lengths: 5.8km, 10km, and the logest at 14 km. But do not judge from these numbers: that short (5,8 km) stage claimed more than 20 “victims”!
Lately a number of internationally known drivers and rising stars have participated in the Saaremaa Rally. We have seen winners on past events such as Anton Allen, Andreas Mikkelsen, Ott Tänak (who was actually born on this island) and Juho Hanninen. This year we all expected a battle between Norwegian star Mads Ostberg (Subaru Impreza WRC) and another WRC driver Estonian Georg Gross (Ford Focus WRC) and, of course, young Ott Tänak who piloted a Ford Fiesta S2000 for this rally. Mads Ostberg won all but two stages – in very first one fastest was Georg Gross and in city superspecial was won by Ott Tänak. Stage after stage, second by second, Ostberg built his lead and after SS14 it was almost one and half minutes over second place finisher Gross who won this position after a fight with Ott Tänak. They were separated by just 10 seconds at the finish. Tänak was third overall, but with certainty won Class N4.
Because of these short stages, battles were intense in all the classes, for every place in the overall standings but most dramatic was in Class N4. Just 0,7sec separated the bottom step of podium from fourth place and third was won by experienced Estonian Priit Saluri as he defeated young Lithuanian Dominikas Butvilas. 07sec further back was the fastest of the Latvian drivers, Jānis Feldmanis.
The very international podiums saw this rally, for example, Class E12 winner was Lituanian Rokas Lipeķis (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII), second place went to Latvia with Aivars Bērziņš (Mitsubishi Lancer Evi VI), but third was Finn Sami Valme (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI).
The 43rd Saaremaa Rally was as hard as ever, and thick fog in the morning stages didn’t ease the difficult going either. But it is in exactly such conditions that you can see who believes his in his pacenotes and co-driver and who does not. The specific character of these stages also demands very quick reactions – on the second pass through the stages, quite deep ruts was formed inside the corners and they acted as unexpected jumps: that’s why so many cars were scattered off the road and in the bushes. From 146 cars that started this rally, 60 retired but those who managed to the finish every crew may be proud for themselves and for their cars. The princess has chosen her knights and awarded them with the fantastic feeling of gratification of a good job completed. Actually, an exploit!