The rising star of the World Rally Championship and the Norwegian Champion of 2011 Mads Ostberg with co-driver Jonas Andersson will start with the No 1, and they will represent the „MML Sports – ASRT” Rally Team.

The 2nd number is given to the group N4 Estonian Rally Champion in 2011 Kaspar Koitla, but the 3rd number is given to the overall Estonian Rally Champion in 2011 Jānis Vorobjovs. One of the fastest local drivers and group N4 Latvian Champion 2011 Andis Neikšāns will start with the No 4, and he will be followed by the group N4 Lithuanian Rally Champion 2011 Vytautas Švedas. The overall Russian Champion in 2011 Dmitry Tagirov will start with the No 18.

In total there will be 20 N4 class cars, 6 R4 class cars and 26 all-wheel-drive rally cars in the A+ and in the Debutant Challenge Cup group, including the well-known Toni Gardemeister, who will drive a rally-raid Mitshubishi Pajero. Fierce competition is expected also in the front-wheel-drive R2 class with 10 participating crews, but in the two-wheel-drive class participation has been confirmed by 18 crews in the 2WD and the Debutant Challenge Cup group.

“Rally Talsi 2012” stage maps for spectators will be published in the 8th May issue of the periodical “Sporta Avīze”, which will be available in all newsstands. The maps will be downloadable also from the “Rally Talsi 2012” home page www.rallytalsi.lv. The Rally organizers kindly advise the spectators to take into account that the Rīga – Ventspils highway nearby Spāre is under construction, thus traffic can be considerably slower. In the stage maps published by the organizers precise indications about the best access roads are given in order to avoid traffic jams.

“Rally Talsi 2012” will last for two days, and the spectators without any haste will be able to see six out of ten stages. The Rally Opening Ceremony will be held on 12th May around midday in the city centre near the Talsi Community Centre and the spectators will be able to enjoy different activities. The first day of the rally will end in a beautiful concert in the open-air stage Sauleskalns, where a legendary rock-group Pērkons (Thunder) will perform their best songs, and after a two hour show the party will continue almost throughout the night for all the disco-fans.

Further information about the event programme, stage maps, as well as the participants’ start list is available at www.rallytalsi.lv.

Oskars Kaņeps-Kalniņš, "Rally Talsi 2012" Press Secretary