“I am actually a little surprised to be in the lead,” says the happy Koitla. “We can feel that it has been a while since the last event and we are lacking consistency. Today was quite a short day with short stages, so the real battle will take place tomorrow. Still, I hope that the consistency will come back and I will be able to stay in front,” Kaspar Koitla comments on his first day, after which he is also leading the Champions Cup.

Jānis Vorobjovs / Andris Mālnieks were the fastest Latvians and, despite getting a puncture on stage two, are currently eight overall. Talsi locals Elviss Hermanis / Gatis Veilands had a mixed day – even though they managed to continue after rolling the car on stage two, the engine damage turned out to be bigger than initially thought, leading to a retirement.

Lots of lead changes and close battles were taking place throughout the day in the front wheel drive LRČ3 group, where only a ten second penalty (for being late to a time control) dropped Ralfs Sirmacis / Artūrs Šimins to second place: “Today was quite good, and we managed to show that it is possible to be very competitive in a Ford Fiesta, even against the Peugeot 208 cars. Tomorrow we are going to keep driving at the same pace – as fast as possible, without holding anything back, as that is the only way we can stay in front,” Ralfs Sirmacis is ready to take back the lead.

After taking a multiple year break, Ivars Vasaraudzis has returned to compete in a rally, co-driven by the ice-hockey player Oskars Bārtulis: The feeling of getting back in a rally car is something that words can’t describe,” Ivars Vasaraudzis is thrilled about the opportunity to compete. “Oskars is reading the pacenotes perfectly, I just need to take care of some small errors in my driving, especially when choosing the braking points. Our time in the city stage was very good – third and second place overall, giving us an understanding of how fast we can be if everything goes right!” Vasaraudzis is happy with his current result.

Rally Talsi special guest Haralds Šlēgelmilhs, who is using the event to popularize the movement 1836 that aims to promote travel within Latvia, is currently sixteenth overall. As he admits, the crew is happy to have an opportunity to compete in Rally Talsi again, and the result of day one is good: “If we ignore the puncture and difficult road conditions, the excitement is almost like driving a formula!”

Rally Talsi. Photo: Go4Speed.lv