When autumn comes, it’s a lot of fun to remember things that happened in the summer. Samsonas Rally Rokiškis was a good affair in the northern part of Lithuania. Samsonas name and quality of the rally attract very interesting participants. Some are doing better, others – worse. And what happened in early August? Fastest Lithuanian driver Vaidotas Žala with his Škoda Fabia R5 left no chances for others in Rokiškis region roads. But with this article, we will not tell a great Lithuanian rally epic, but rather honor a rare guest on the stages, but a very active person in a rally world. And past years only Lithuanians have the opportunity to see the legend flying on their country’s roads. Since 2012, Toni Gardemeister has only one official competition a year. He visited Latvia, Estonia, even the Barbados Rally described earlier. Well, for the last two years the Finn has been playing Lithuanian gravel roads with the BMW M3.
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Top Fry Rally ’19
In Europe and beyond, people love to break their antique cars. There are at least three serious rally championships on our continent that have “Historic” word on their names.
Continue reading…Sammy Yokote Rally ’19
Legendary Japanese rally master, two-time Production WRC and multiple-time national champion, Toshihiro Arai is approaching a beautiful anniversary. At the Sammy Yokote Rally, Toshi celebrated the 180th rally start. Although the man will be 53 years old at Christmas, Toshi is unlikely to stop before he reaches the 200 starts. The number 180 is impressive, but what really turns T. Arai into a special person in the rally world – all the events up to one was started with cars that had the same swarm of stars on their hoods. In the Japanese language – that swarm is called Subaru. For 24 years, Toshi has been driving a variety of models on the rally roads, from the old Subaru Impreza GT to the Subaru Impreza S12 WRC. The only place where Arai has issued a Subaru badge is the start of the WTCC event in Japan with Chevrolet.
Continue reading…New England Forest Rally ’19
The United States is the home of people with high levels of gasoline in their blood. So motorsport has a really respectable place in the pantheon of various sports. True, that the rally itself has not conquered hearts as strongly as other steel horse races. There are two major championships in North America, the ARA (American Rally Association) and the FIA North American Rally Cup. The first consists of 9 stages in the US and the second – as many as 17 events throughout North America. The crews there are mostly local, with stars like Ken Block or Travis Pastrana was among them. But European rally grandmasters like Mark Higgins and Barry McKenna also take part in the promised land. Junior WRC Champion Patrick Sandel also drove there. And now everyone’s eyes turned to the young Norwegian, Petter Solberg’s son – Oliver.
Continue reading…Nicky Grist Stages ’19
In Britain and beyond, there are a number of rallies named in honor of some famous racer who has already died, for example – Jim Clark Memorial Rally. But it is possible to see the names of still alive racing masters in the event names. Malcolm Wilson and Nicky Grist stand out in the BTRDA championship, which is probably the second most important in the UK. The first one takes place in the spring, and the second one, Nicky Grist Stages – in the middle of July.
Continue reading…Safari Rally ’19
There were a lot of rumors, that after 17 years of absence, one of the legendary rallies, Safari Rally, will come back to the World Rally Championship calendar. And those talks were confirmed during a visit to Kenya by officials from FIA and car manufacturers. Northwest of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, Nakuru has attracted a large number of participants to the Kenyan and African Rally Championship for this occasion.
Continue reading…Rallye Terre du Haut-Var ’19
France and Sebastian Loeb again. Legendary French continues his extracurricular activities by taking part in non-WRC rallies. It may sound strange, but in Rallye Terre du Haut-Var, which is the third France gravel championship event, Loeb came only fifth. But as always, it’s really unwise to do early assessments and not look deeper.
Continue reading…Rally of South Canterbury ’19
A month ago, on a southern New Zealand island, a 4th rally championship event happened. Near 200 kilometers of dusty roads were ready to be tackled by crews mostly from New Zealand. Between a few R5’s and many various years Mitsubishi Lancer Evo’s and Subaru Impreza’s, there are AP4 class cars. They are like “Proto” in the Baltic region, N5 – in Spain or MRT in South America. The body varies from Škoda Fabia to Mazda 2 or Holden Barina, but the main parts are the same.
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