Bankers, Romantics and Bandits Started in the 90’s “VW Golf Cup” – Motorsport – Auto

Paul Timrot returns to this series in the early 1990s to look back on how the legendary highway race developed from scratch in Latvia, with an unimaginable line-up of participants on one track.

Indulis Rukuts, one of the pioneers of the “VW Golf Cup”, remembers that at that time motorsport enthusiasts did not have much opportunity to express themselves, but the desire was great. If in the first stage of the competition there were 15 participants at the start, later there were so many people who wanted to drive that there was not enough space for everyone on the Biķernieki track.

Colleague Andris Štāls explains this with the opportunities to get money quickly and fulfill the dream of motorsport at that time. Tāls Melķis, who was in charge of the construction of VW Golf spare parts, knows that technical creativity played a big role, because the mechanics learned in the work process.

Gunārs Žideļuns, who supervised the technical course of the competition and the safety side, admits that it was difficult for the organization, because some of the riders were not involved in motorsports. Due to lack of experience, the iron broke in the collisions and it was a great fortune if the first lap was without accidents.

We will find out what were the riskiest moments of the “VW Golf Cup”, the fiercest fights and the craziest accidents in the new show series.

The article was written in collaboration with LMT Smart Television.