After the „Rally Talsi 2012” opening ceremony in Talsi town centre all the crews where heading to four all-gravel special stages and a CVS parallel super special stage. Andis Neiksāns, driving a group N Mitsubishi Evo X, set the fastest time on stage one but WRC driver Mads Ostberg was 4th quikest with his all-new Mitsubishi Evo X.

Unfortunately Mads Ostberg did not reach the finish on stage two because of a gearbox failure and he is out of the race. „I came here to win „Rally Talsi 2012” and we had a good start. I believe we would win for sure as on stage two I already felt comfortable with the car and it’s a shame we had to stop because of a tehnical failure. However I enjoyed this event so far and I really hope to come back next year”, said Mads.

Andis Neikšāns was also dissapointed not to battle with WRC star Mads Ostberg, driving a group N car in „Rally Talsi 2012”. It would have been great to race against Mads and even if I would loose I would not be ashamed – just the opposite – a good motiovation to drive even faster.

The final stage of day one was a parallel super special CVS with lots of spectators to whatch two cars driving at the same time. Despite this stage being only 1,80 km long there where couple of changes in the leader board as well as Jānis Vorobjovs did an impressive jump with his group N Mitsubishi Evo X.

After day one in „Rally Talsi 2012” was completed all the fans enjoyed a concert of a well known Latvian rock group „Pērkons” in oper-air stage „Sauleskalns”. Sunday, day two will begin at 10:20 with „Neste Oil” opening stage.

Live results can be found at www.autorally.lv as well as all the latest news are at www.delfi.lv and „Rally Talsi 2012” Twitter account @Rally_Talsi.

Oskars Kaņeps-Kalniņš, "Rally Talsi 2012" Press Secretary. Foto: Aigars Tīdmanis, Go4speed.