Neighbors should be there for one another. That, apparently, is when good neighbors become good friends. Estonia and Finland are just a footstep away from each other and they’ve cemented a neighborly friendship with a joint round of their national championships for 2024.
Relations between the northern and southern shores of the Baltic Sea have fluctuated rally-wise for a while. Back in the days of Markko Märtin and Marcus Grönholm there was a friendly rivalry, with maybe more of an emphasis on the rivalry. It was a kind of similar when Ott Tänak won three from four Finlands not so long ago.
Talking to Rally Estonia director Urmo Aava last year, he made it clear that he saw a great future both for his country and for Finland to work together in terms of promotion of their World Rally Championship rounds. We saw the result of that in the summer with the Battle of the Champions Rally Pass, which offered fans from both countries a discounted ticket across the two WRC rounds.
It went down a storm. And now this: the Estonian Rally Championship will head north across the water for the Länsirannikon Ralli in Turku, Finland. The May event will make history for both series and both countries.
Kuldar Sikk is one of Estonian rallying’s best-known faces (and voices). He’s co-driven the country’s biggest and brightest stars. And now he’s Estonian Autosport Association sports director. He’s seen this one coming for a while.
Sikk said: “This issue has been talked about more or less for almost 10 years, it’s great that it is finally happening. In general, it is important that the federations of different countries, especially the neighbors, cooperate, this way we can be stronger together.”
His opposite number in AKK, the Finnish governing body, Henrik Frank, is similarly excited.
“We had really fruitful discussions with our Estonian colleagues and it certainly helped that interest arose from that direction in coming to compete in Finland,” he said. “I see a lot of potential here for the development of cooperation in the coming future as well.”
But what about the rally itself? Predictably, the chairman of the Länsirannikon Ralli organizers Markku Suvanto is happy his event gets to re-write history in this Finnish-Estonian alliance.
“We warmly welcome Estonian competitors to drive here,” said Suvanto. “There will be some changes to the arrangements due to this, but nothing too challenging. I’m looking forward to seeing how the best national rally stars from both nations face each other on the fast and challenging roads of the Turku region.”
