Nikolay Gryazin and Yaroslav Fedorov with Škoda Fabia R5 are considered as main leaders due to good performance in winter rallies in Norway earlier this year and they are very familiar with local roads as they finished 2nd overall in last year’s Rally Sarma.

It will not be an easy task for Gryazin though as he will start with No1 and will have to clean the snowy road for other competitors. One of the main opponents will be Ukrainian Valerii Gorban with BMW-Mini John Cooper Works WRC and Latvian Jānis Berķis with Ford Fiesta R5. Of course, Estonian Egon Kaur with Ford Fiesta Proto will push very hard to join the fight for a win in Rally Sarma after a huge mistake and disappointment in the first round of championship. Meanwhile, Priit Koik with Ford Fiesta Proto and Rainer Aus with Volkswagen Polo Proto for sure will be fast enough to take a place on the podium as well.

Current champion of Russia Stanislav Travnikov, two Estonians Ranno Bundsen and Allan Popov, two Latvians Edijs Bergmanis and Emīls Blūms and Sergey Remennik who finished 3rd in ERC2 championship in 2017 will compete with more or less similar Mitsubishi Lancer Evo rally cars. Probably the most experienced Latvian pilot Māris Neikšāns will join this battle as this will be his first home rally after a very long break. Neikšāns last rally was in Canadian rally championship in December 2017 where he took a class win and finished 3rd overall. We should also note that Gatis Vecvagars will rejoin the championship in Rally Sarma with his Mitsubishi Mirage after a one-year break and due to his experience on these roads the crew will probably fight for the top ten as well as Ronalds Baldiņš who can be surprisingly fast and confident.

The never-ending fight will continue in R2 class between the young guns and rising stars of rallying. We can only place a bet on how high in overall standings flying Latvian Mārtiņš Sesks will be at the finish line but it is very clear that Oliver Solberg is getting faster with every stage so will the talented Norwegian be finally faster than the local hero? Meanwhile the Estonian trio Rasmus Uustulnd, Roland Poom and Kaspar Kasari will definitely have something to add in this battle as usual.

LRC5 group results were very interesting to follow during the opening round of championship earlier this year as the special stage wins were equally shared between Jānis Vorobjos, Dmitriy Gorchakov, Madis Vanaselja and Lembit Soe. Although everything will be different this time as Marko Ringenberg will join this group in Rally Sarma with his fast BMW M3.

Rally Sarma 2018 will start with an opening ceremony on Friday evening, 9th of February in Gulbene city centre but the competition will begin on Saturday, 10th of February. There will be nine special stages with total SS distance 109,94 km and total distance of rally slightly more than 390 km.

Information about accommodation can be found in tourism information webpage www.visitgulbene.lv. Follow the news of Rally Sarma 2018 on Facebook and Twitter, while other official information can be found in webpage of Latvian Rally Championship www.autorally.lv.

Rally Sarma 2018 is supported by Gulbene district, timber company Vasks, logging company Grantiņi-1 and companies: Ikteri, Akvedukts, M.T.Z. SERVISS, Kombainserviss, Sendija, Gulbenes Autobuss, Kopa, Kantes Krogs and RMS Group. Official car: Renault by Mūsa Motors Rīga. Rally radio: EHR. Media partners: Dzirkstele. LATAUTO.lv, 4rati.lv, Tavs Auto and rally.ee.

Ģirts Avotiņš, Rally Sarma media officer. Photo:Dace Janova, 4rati.lv