The four motorsport associations of the Baltic countries have joined forces and an events of this championship was held in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland for the second year running. What is it, why it was created and what the situation is like before an event – you’ll soon find out.
This championship is taking place for the second year in a row and is mainly managed by the Estonian Federation. Rally drivers can compete and win in six classes. The first three classes (Class1, Class2, Class3) are for cars homologated by the FIA, while the other three (Class4, Class5, Class6) are for cars that meet the national requirements. The season started in winter with the “Sarma” rally in Latvia, the second event “Länsirannikon” rally in Finland took place in spring, the third stage “Paide” rally in Estonia was recently held and the championship will conclude on September 27-28. The main purpose of this championship is to narrow the gap between the national championships and the international FIA ERC or WRC championships and to give rally crews the opportunity to participate in the championship where events take place in different but nearby countries.
“The Baltic Championship is a good opportunity for drivers to test themselves in international competitions at a reasonable price. The rallies are not too far geographically from all countries, but they take place on roads with different characteristics, where there is a high level of sportsmanship,” says Emilia Abel, Chair of the Estonian Motorsport Association’s Rally Committee.
After three rounds of the championship, none of the six classes has yet secured its champion. In Class 1, Turkey’s Karem Kazaz, who is driving many different Rally2 cars this year, has the best chance of winning the trophy. He has a 21-point lead over Finland’s Teemu Asunmaa and Estonia’s Prit Koik, who drive different generations of Škoda Fabia Rally2 cars. In Class 2, Estonians Patrick Enok and Esmar-Arnold Unt, both driving a Ford Fiesta Rally3, have 60 points each. Another Turk, Can Alakoc with the Ford Fiesta Rally4, has established himself in the Class 3 standings, but he can be overtaken by Estonian Mark-Egert Tiits and Finn Isak Hatanmaa.
In the Class4, Class5, and Class6 standings, crews are competing with cars from the national classes. The winner of Class 4 could be one of three extremely fast crews – Emils Blums with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, Egon Kaur with the Hyundai i20 VRT and Urmo Aava with the Subaru Impreza N10. Emil’s brother Kalvis also has a theoretical chance. In Class 5, where BMW cars reign supreme, Taavi Niinemets, Markus Tamoja, and Markus Abram are in the best position. They all drive a BMW M3. The situation is also tense among the weakest cars standings – Class 6. Madars Dirinš leads with 46 points with a Honda Civic Type-R, and Sander-Eger Tiits is five points behind. Behind them, there are at least 10 crews that can hope for victory.
The ranking of the countries is also calculated in the championship of the Baltic Sea countries. It is completely dominated by Estonia with 522 points. An interesting battle between Latvia and Finland for second place. Latvia has 282 points and Finland 242. Lithuania can extend its modest dowry of 47 points and at the same time move up to fourth place at the Samsonas Rally Utena 2024, where it will have the most representatives.
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