One of the main competition leaders will be the double winner of Rally ‘Kurzeme’ and the convincing leader of the Estonian Championship this year, George Gross, with the ‘Ford Focus WRC’. It can be expected that he will face severe competition from the 20 year old Estonian talent Martin Kangur, who will compete with the ‘Ford Fiesta R5’ that has not been seen in Latvia before. This was the vehicle with which Estonian driver Karl Kruda won 20th place in the overall standing of the World Championship stage in Germany that took place last weekend and 8th place in the WRC2 test.

“This year the Rally has managed to gather a composition of especially strong competitors and their fans will be provided an all-or-none fight for seconds between several crews,” says Rally Director Uldis Hmieļevskis. “This year Rally ‘Kurzeme 2013’ will return to the classical roads that are rich in their series of complicated turns and high average speeds. To climb on the podium sportsmen will have to demonstrate their entire mastery over each metre of the race,” U. Hmieļevskis.

An interesting fight can be expected between the seven-time champion of the German Rally and the winner of the Dakar Marathon Rally in 2009 in buggy class Mathias Kahle, and the premature champion of this year’s Latvian Championship in the A+ group Martiņš Svilis. In October last year, in the Lausitz Rally in Germany, M. Svilis caused a sensation, giving victory to the local M. Kahle due to technical problems in just the last two speed rides. On the finish line Svilis fell only 12 seconds behind the awarded German, while more than one and a half minutes already separated him from the 3rd place winner. In Kurzeme, the German champion will pilot one of the two WRC cars of this Rally, but M. Svilis could gain an advantage by having better knowledge about the specifics of the local roads.

In the N4 group the competition leaders will be six sportsmen. In the fight for victory from the Latvian sportsmen the many time winners of the Latvian champion’s title Aivis Egle and Jānis Vorobjovs will take part, as well as the resident of Liepaja Viktors Lebedevs. From the Estonian sportsmen, as the main claimants for victory in the N4 group, the 3rd place winner of the World Rally Championship in Sardinia in 2012 – Ott Tänak should be mentioned, as well as the leader of the group in the Estonian Championship this season – Timmu Kõrge. Another crew who will also be very fast on the Kurzeme roads is the Russian crew with Aleksej Lukjanuk and Aleksej Arnautov, that currently holds 2nd place in the Latvian Championship, and which in the World Championship stage in Finland that took place in the beginning of August, finished in 16th place, but after the first two days held a high 12th place.

The duel between O. Tänak and A. Lukjanuk that already began in May in the Talsi Rally will be interesting for rally fans on the Kurzeme roads. Within this competition, the fight between both sportsmen took place for tenths of seconds and before the last speed ride A. Lukjanuk outpaced his main competitor by only 7.53 seconds. But in the winning, longest rally speed ride, near the starting position the competition leader flew off the route and cracked the front wheel, as a result reaching the rally finish line with a four minute delay.

A very intense fight can also be expected between the single-axle drive cars. The winner of last year’s Rally ‘Kurzeme’ Andis Neikšāns has switched to a rear-wheel drive ‘BMW M3’, and it will be interesting for the rally fans to watch his fight with ‘OKarte Autosport Academy’ drivers of front-wheel drive cars Ralfs Sirmacis and the resident of Liepāja Mārcis Ķenavs, Russian driver Mihail Skripnikov and the current 3rd place holder of the World Championship in Junior Test, Estonian Sander Pärn.

In total 105 crews have applied for the Rally, 37 of which will start in the Latvia, but 34 – in the Estonian Championship test; 27 crews will complete over a shortened distance as participants of the rally sprint.

Linda Brūdere, Press Secretary Speed Festival Rally ‘Kurzeme 2013’. Foto: Mareks Seleņa