2011 Estonian Rallying starts with 79 cars

Words: Liga Stirna
Pictures: Arturs Bets, Aigars Laurinovics (http://www.rallyemotions.lv)

This number – 79 – of participating teams opened the first round of the 2011 Estonian Rally Championship, the Võru Winter Rally (or in the local language, the Võrumaa talveralli 2011). Now we can say, the rally season in the Baltics has begun!

And it started well with proper winter conditions, with icy, frozen roads, high snow banks, chilly temperatures and even some sun on the day of the rally. Võru Winter Rally was the first round of Estonian Rally Championship, but the entry list was mixed as usual here in Baltics: Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Russians, Poles were among the drivers at the start and the biggest competition was in Class N4 with a total of 25 entires. Some have entered the Estonian Championship, while others used this rally as preparation for future events. For example, Poland will feature their first winter rally and Polish crew Maciej Rzeznik/Przemyslaw Mazur (Škoda Fabia S2000) travelled to Estonia for the practice as the driver had never driven in winter conditions, whereas Martina Kangur/Kristo Kraag (Honda Civic Type R) used this rally as preparation for their foreign winter campaigns, the Arctic Rally and WRC Rally Sweden. For any plans the crews had for this event, the rally was very exciting.

Many suspected that it would be won by Georg Gross/Raigo Mõlder, the only crew in a WRC car, a Ford Focus WRC, but it was not to be this time. After SS2 they retired due to engine failure. This was unusual for a recently bought new car, and stages weren’t too demanding either… The next leaders of the rally were Sander Pärn/Ken Järveoja (Subaru Impreza), but some three seconds behind them were the very experienced Priit Saluri/Indrk Lepp (Subaru Impreza), Kaspar Koitla/Andres Ots (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) and Latvians Jānis Vorobjovs/Guntars Zicāns (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X). Kaspar Koitla progressed with every stage and climbed to the very top of leader board, and behind him Sander Pärn in very last stage overtook Jānis Vorobjovs to finish second overall. By the way, both these crews were last year’s juniors, competing respectively with a Honda Civic Type R and a Renault Clio Kaspar is 22 year old and Sander just 19.

“It was a good surprise to lead and win this rally,” said Kaspar, and explained his change of cars: “I thought that I have nothing to do with 2WD car. I need faster car!”

Plans for rest of the season are not yet finalized, all depends on money, he points out. “For sure next rally is Tallina rally in the beginning of May, but also I want to take part some rallies in Latvia, Russia or Finland,” said Kaspar.

Despite the fast, and for Estonia’s usually complicated stages, this rally saw only a few crashes and just one of them was serious: reigning Estonian Champion Margus Remmak rolled his heavily Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX in SS3. As a result the stage was cancelled, but only the car suffered as the crew was uninjured.

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION
01) K. Koitla/A. Ots
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX – 56m 47,2s
02) S. Pärn/K. Järveoja
Subaru Impreza WRX STi + 24,0s
03) J. Vorobjovs/G. Ziāans
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X + 25,8s
04) P. Saluri/I. Lepp
Subaru Impreza WRX STi + 44,3s
05) V. Švedas/Ž. Sakalauskas
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX + 01m 12,6s
06) A. Pärs/S. Koskinen
Subaru Impreza WRX STi + 01m 12,8s
07) D. Tagirov/A. Zavershinskaya
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX + 01m 29,7s
08) M. Kasepõld/R. Jõessar
Subaru Impreza + 01m 34,9s
09) R. Murakas/K. Adler
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII + 01m 43,1s
10) D. Butvilas/R. Vaitkevičius
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X + 01m 57,8s