The application for the second stage of the FIA European Rally Championship 2020 season “Rally Liepāja” has ended with a wide and strong composition of participants. A total of 48 crews have applied for the competition, among which there are known and already proven rally pilots on the international stage – “Rally Liepāja” winners of previous years Olivers Solbergs, Nikolajs Grjazins, Craig Brīns, who will be joined by 2018 European Rally Champion Aleksejs Lukjaņuks and WRC experienced Citroën Racing “factory team pilot Mads Ostbergs.
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The fight for the victory of “Rally Liepāja” and the podium promises to be especially exciting, several previously named motorists will join the crews of the already named pilots – Polish rally champion Miko Marciks, Romanian rally champion Simone Temepstini, last year’s “ERC3 Junior” champion 201 Eren Finnish Rally Champion Erik Pietarinen. Applications have been received from a number of other, young and talented riders, who can at any time provide exciting surprises in the special stages and in the leaderboard.
A total of 19 crews with an unprecedented wide range of different cars – “Škoda Fabia R5” and the latest specifications “Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo”, “Hyundai i20 R5”, “Ford Fiesta R5”, will start in the ERC1 group of the leading R5 / Rally2 group. “Citroën C3 R5”, “Volkswagen Polo GTI R5” – giving spectators a rare opportunity to compare the performance of almost all cars in this group in one race.
Hungarian Tibors Erdi has started the fight for his third champion title in the ERC2 test. The competition will be played by the old Italian master Zelindo Melegari, who won the laurels of the ERC2 winner in the first stage of the season “Rally di Roma Capitale”. It will be especially exciting for Latvian fans to follow two Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X crews – in one of them Ainārs and Ralfs Igaveņi will join forces, and in the other Dmitrijs Feofanovs with co-driver Normunds Kokins. Also, for the second year in a row, the colorful rear-wheel drive “Abarth 124 Rally” cars will start in this test class – we will see a total of three of them on Talsi and Liepāja roads.
Latvia will be especially brilliant in the ERC3 Junior class. The 2018 European Junior Champion Mārtiņš Sesks with co-driver Renārs Francis, as well as the two-time European Rallycross Champion Reinis Nitišs and co-driver Andris Mālnieks will drive the latest specification “Ford Fiesta Rally4” vehicle on the roads of his hometown. Among the Latvian competitors are such new generation rally lights as the Swedish Deniss Radstroms, the Estonians Ken Torn and Gregors Jēts, and the Swedish Adam Westlund.
During the “Rally Liepāja” there will also be two stages of the Latvian Rally Championship, as well as rally sprint and “Historic Sport” competitions, in which another 30 crews will start. Also on Saturday and Sunday in the special stages we will see 18 participants of the historical car regularity rally “Youngtimer Rally Liepāja”, thus “Rally Liepāja” a total of 96 crews will start at the start.
The organizers remind the spectators that it will not be possible to buy entrance tickets at the entrance to the special stages, so we invite you to arrange them by visiting one of the Ticket Service sales points in Latvia or on the Internet. Also, before going to the special stages, spectators must visit one of the ticket exchange points, where all entrance tickets purchased in the Ticket Service system must be exchanged for bracelets. Without Rally Liepāja bracelets, entry into the special stages will not be possible.
