Rovaniemi is a city in the legendary Lapland region with a Santa Claus in the neighborhood. It is one of the few places where snowbanks are with a car roof at the moment. Thus, the Arctic Lapland Rally avoided the fate of Winter (Lithuania), Sarma (Latvia) or Finnskog (Norway) rallies due to lack of frost and snow. In addition, it is one of the most famous snow rallies in the world, which is only losing a place to WRC Sweden.
Europe
Romania Historic Winter Rally ’20
In most countries, where snow should already exist and winter rallies are canceled or moved, someplace in Romania does not have this issue. In the middle of the country, in a mountainous area near Brașov, the organizers covered over 200 kilometers of snowy roads. And Transylvania, one of the coldest regions in Romania, did not spoil the feast. Over 50 different historic cars took on snow-covered roads. This rally is not a championship event, but simply a celebration for petrolheads at the very beginning of the year when action is really lacking. Plus, it’s one of the few places where historic-class cars compete in sub-zero temperatures. The same organizers are organizing a gravel rally in the same neighborhood, except this one is in October and is twice as long.
Jännerrallye ’20
Many big things have their smaller copies scattered somewhere in the World. Be it museums or events. For example, the 24-hour Le Mans race has a counterpart in the US, where Petit Le Mans (Little Le Mans) takes place in Atlanta. And on the first weekend of January, fans focus their attention on the neighborhood of Freistadt, northern Austria, where the “little” Monte Carlo rally is held. Jännerrallye
Rally Legend ’19
Short post because the event that is described needs to be seen live. Black on white doesn’t present it well.
Rally Chumatskiy Shlyah ’19
In southern Ukraine, near Odesa, men last time gathered to finish Ukraine’s championship affairs at the Chumatskiy Shlyah rally. Like all the events, it was on gravel. Even though the weather was great at the rally time, previous weather conditions meant that you could distinguish a car only by its shape – color, sponsor stickers, and other design elements were hiding underneath a thick layer of dirt. In addition, several stages were canceled with a bunch of other organizational difficulties. Rally Chumatskiy Shlyah.
Niederösterreich Rallye ’19
Between Vienna and Linz, the fastest of the Austrian Rally gathered for the sixth round of the Austrian Rally Championship. Niederösterreich Rallye. There the main battles took place between the two crews, which chased each other throughout the season. One, then the other takes the victory, and the rest of the participants can only dream of a third position at best. Those two crews are 2016 champion Hermann Neubauer with Ford Fiesta R5 and young talent Julian Wagner with Škoda Fabia R5. Although Hermann has more victories, the unfinished opening event caused trouble for him, as he needed to chase Wagner whole season in terms of points. This Niederosterreich rally was won by Neubauer again, reducing the gap to 8 points. The Austrian champion will be revealed in the middle of November during the Rallye W4.
Hellendoorn Rally ’19
This time we will travel to the eastern part of the Netherlands, the Hellendoorn neighborhood, where the event of the Dutch Rally Championship takes place every year. 170 kilometers of stages were waiting for the participants. Although this rally is officially a tarmac event, crews have to sweat a lot to try to get their car on the gravel and sand. Not to mention when the rain comes. Roads run through villages and small towns, so from time to time, there are gravel roads. Also, drivers tend to cut corners heavily and the road gets dirty pretty quickly. Some drivers, intentionally or unintentionally, have the ability to cut a meter – another even through cornfields. And here’s a brief look at the Dutch Championship itself and the guest who has only missed one of this event in a decade.
Escort Rally Special ’19
In the southern part of Belgium, just off the French border, in the vicinity of the old Chimay racetrack, this is the second year of the event, which has been dedicated to one of the most iconic rally cars – the Ford Escort. And this is Escort Rally Special Rally.
East Sweden Rally ’19
This winter, Sweden’s Patrik Flodin was among the returnees in Sweden’s WRC event, including Gronholm, Bertelli, and Tuohino. This Swede I think will be remembered by those who followed the Production WRC Championship 2007-2011. Patrik has been faithfully driving Subaru Impreza all those years and almost twice won the PWRC Championship. In 2010, he was beaten by now well-known Hayden Paddon, and in 2011 – by Portuguese star Armindo Araujo. The Swede no longer took the title for the third time. In 2012, he traveled to famous European rallies with the Ford Fiesta S2000 and then landed in his native Sweden, where he drove the classic Volvo and BMW E30 models. The question was, did the Swede return to serious R5 technique only for the winter or will he continue to participate all year? East Sweden Rally had an answer.
Woodpecker Stages Rally ’19
The R5 Rally Car Class is a great move from the FIA. This class dominates the national championships and is a great stepping stone to the World Rally Championship. Some manufacturers are doing better, their cars are dominant, and buyers have the longest queues. For others, it is harder to succeed, lacking in speed and reliability. And a new player has recently entered this highly competitive pot of Škoda, Ford, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Citroen. Probably it is unlikely to reach heights like rivals because it is a private initiative, not a manufacturer’s project, but diversity is a welcome thing. And we’re talking about a British project where a Japanese engine sits in a chassis from Malaysia. Globalization, in other words.
