Mon, 13 Mar 2023 16:21:00 +0000

RBR.LV Virtual Rally Cup 2nd rally “Alūksne 2023” has finished with another record!

In very wintery conditions covering Alūksne region, exactly 100 competitors started the battle with stages, of whom 81 got to the last time control, and 49 of those - without using the superrally system for reentering stages after a crash.

Same as 2 weeks ago in rally Sarma, two overall fastest drivers were Ralfs Igaveņš and Rihards Maspāns (VW Polo GTI R5). And same as before, the drama was real!

In SpecialStage 2 (SS2) Rihards had an incident with a spectator, who was onlooking the rally from a very unsafe spot, and Maspāns had to stop and check on his well being for about 40 seconds. That didn’t stop him completely though, because he kept setting amazing speeds and got back up to second position. After a report to the stage marshals, the lost time was deducted from his overall result and that secured a win for Rihards Maspans. Third on the podium - Estonian driver Gevin Peet (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX R4) 43 seconds behind, with that securing his win in LRC2 class.

Notable mention and a virtual Colin McRae trophy (if we’d had one) definitely goes to our most experienced veteran driver Raivo Dabiņš. Crash and overheating car on SS1 meant that he had to continue on the Superraly rule. Nevertheless, after that, he set 6 overall fastest stage times only to crash out again in SS10.

LRC2 was dominated by the aforementioned Gevin Peet, second with a very consistent driving - Reinis Vilkaitis (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX R4). Closing the podium - Elmārs Tikums (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X R4) who fought back after a flimsy start of the rally.

LRC3 or Front wheel drive car class saw all three Baltic states drivers step on the podium. Fastest - Markas Buteikis, second - Tokke Egert, third - Kristians Jakovļevs.

The least populated but definitely most attractive and fun to watch LRC4 or Rear wheel drive car class was won by Kriss Jaunzemis, second - Valdas Dziaugys and third - Roberts Beikmanis.

Now it’s time to have a 2 month rest (or training session) and the season will continue on May 18 with rally Vecpils.

Few comments from our drivers after some of the stages:

“Made a silly mistake in the penultimate stage, was braking too late, had to reverse and didn’t see the spectator area. Power stage was good though, was even leading first two splits, but the crazy estonian was faster by 0.4 seconds in the end. Such a stressful rally, a great competition unlike Dirt”/Atis/

“First two stages were stressful and I couldn’t catch my rhythm. Missing braking points and corner entries, that’s stress. Second part of the rally was better, improved my Chirdonhead time by 5 seconds, even tho much slower than my training times. Powerstage first split was in p1, then after a small mistake p2 but hitting a snowbank slowed me down quite a bit, and ended up losing about 6 seconds.”/Edgars/

SS2 was unlucky again. Had to call for spectator help, and couldn't even catch my steering wheel. Even tried to drop my car doors for some weight reduction. SS3 had an unexpected roll-over. A tree branch just catapulted me into rolls, but luckily ended up on wheels and could continue. SS4 was the frist stage without any major problems, but the overall rally result was compromised nevertheless”/Matīss/

“Had a rare chance to set up my old simracing rig, even had a small training session, but it all ended in SS1. Very dumb mistake and the car overheated. It is what it is.”/Raivo/

“Was doing good until SS5 where the car landed poorly after a jump and sent me into the trees. That compromised the whole rally. Continued with the Superrally rule, but crashed after finishing SS8. Fixed the car before SS9, but the car just didn’t start, maybe the mechanics mistake. It is what it is”/Edvards/

Virtuālā rallija līga Latvijā - Rally Alūksne

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