In the context of preparation for Rally Finland what can be better than an active training in Estonia? Only a participation in Estonian rally can be! In that manner the Eurolamp WRT thought when the decision to run Tartu Rally, fourth stage of Estonian National Championship, was approved. Furthermore the rally, which took place July 14-15 and had planned as a training for Valerii Gorban and Sergey Larens, turned out to be the good training for technical staff too.
Before the start of the rally some problem with clutch was found on the car and it could be a serious obstruction for Ukrainian team’s participation in the event. So Valerii Gorban and Sergey Larens’ fate was in the hands of team’s mechanics and engineers. Fortunately the car was repaired but the crew was forced to miss all four Friday special stages and was punished by 15-minutes penalty for it.
Of course, such time ballast meant that the crew didn’t has any chance to fight for high results. On the other hand the team and crew’s primary goal was absolutely different. Especially the goal was to cover as many kilometers as possible with as high pace as possible and as a result to be ready for high speeds which the crews will have to deal in Finland. And Valerii Gorban and Sergey Larens reached this goal. Three of six Sunday special stages the Eurolamp WRT crew finished with 2nd result and was 3rd twice.
“In my opinion, it was good that we have lost any chance to fight for the top places yet before the start of the rally. Allowing the fact that we were so far to give in to thrill of the competition temptation, we could be concentrated on our driving, on our pace, on co-operation with each other and with our car. And it was our main task on the rally, so we are very satisfied with our result. And we go forward to Rally Finland with good mood and good amount of self-confidence”, – Valery Gorban, Eurolamp WRT driver, noted after the end of Tartu Rally.
Rally Finland is starting on June 25 and the first special stage will be Superspecial in Jyväskylä. During next three days the rally participants will overcome more than 300 kilometers of 24 special stages.