The route for this week’s Rally Estonia was loosely planned thousands of years ago. Seriously. To be more precise, it would have been around 15,000 years ago – the last time there was an ice age in town.
Urmo Aava’s not just the organizer of a superb rally in a lovely country, but he’s also a serious geologist. As well as a very handy driver.
His geological vocabulary might need work though. We’re talking about the route for this week. There’s lots that’s new and even more that’s cool. Especially as this one’s truly three-dimensional.
“It is,” Aava told DirtFish. “To the north from Tartu we have some new sections which are very, very technical. This is where it’s more three dimensional. We have no mountains, but we have cresty places.”
Cresty?
“Yes. We have a cresty landscape with lots of sharp crests. This was coming from the last ice age thousands of years ago. It’s this landscape that was bringing lots of soil from Scandinavia, it’s this place that’s going to make the new sections so interesting.”
And they are. Trust me, they very much are.
And, let’s face it, Estonia wasn’t exactly dull to start with. Anything but. The jumps were some of the biggest of the season – but that wasn’t always a good thing. Dan Barritt injured his back alongside Takamoto Katsuta last season and, of course, Elfyn Evans fell foul of them a year earlier.
Things have changed recently.
“The jumps are much more natural now,” said Aava. “We have now had a few winters and summers on them, and they’ve evolved. As well as this, when we are grading the road, we are working the jumps a little bit at the same time; the machine is taking some off the crest every time. The jumps are much smoother.
“For me, I drove these roads, and this is a proper, proper rally on proper roads. I think it will be the best Rally Estonia ever. The drivers are going to love it.”
The fans are certainly going to love it as Aava and his team go retro and pre-COVID.
“We will have the ceremonial start and finish back in the centre of Tartu,” he said. “This is something we have missed, and I know the fans have all missed. This will be something very special. The atmosphere will be back, just like it was before COVID. And don’t forget, this start and finish is all free of charge, so we will, for sure, see a lot of people.”
But what about the battle. The form Kalle Rovanperä’s in, can anybody stop him?
“I don’t think it will be just Kalle,” said Aava. “For the last two years, it’s been Kalle, Ott [Tänak] and Craig [Breen]. I think it will be the same again – it’s going to be a big fight between the three manufacturers. But as well as them, we cannot forget the guys like Elfyn [Evans] and Thierry [Neuville], they will be there as well.
“To be honest, I’m just looking forward to seeing these incredible Rally1 cars on fast gravel for the first time. To see them coming down our roads for the first time will be a sight really worth waiting for.”
Anybody wanting more detail on those roads, how and why they were made and how they became part of the round seven route should head for Jääaja Keskus – Tartu’s very own ice age center.
