This year’s Rally Estonia will feature a revised format, with the Tartu-based event to be completed in just over 48 hours.
Rally director Urmo Aava has given DirtFish an insight into his thinking for an event which starts at 1pm on Friday July 17 and finishes around 2pm on Sunday July 19.
Shakedown for the rally runs on Friday morning, leaving Thursday afternoon and evening dedicated to the fans with autograph sessions, a ceremonial start in Tartu Town Hall Square and an all-new Rally1 demonstration run.
“We have to look to what our partners need,” said Aava. “We understand the teams need to save some labor costs and we have to help for this. From our side, the economic impact will be made by spectators coming to watch the event and this will be the same – Thursday becomes more like a promotional day. Everybody’s aim has been to save the cost, but to have a bigger outcome. I think this has been a wise proposal; we are a compact rally and we can do this.
“We have made it simple for the competitors,” he added. “If you still want to come to recce on Tuesday and Wednesday, you can do this – but also we have the option to arrive later and recce Wednesday and partly Thursday. It’s up to the competitor. In terms of the route, it will be very similar to the previous years.”
Thursday has always been a show in Estonia, but now the show will be absolutely front and center
Long jump still on the cards
Last year we reported on Rally Estonia’s ambitions to deliver the longest ever jump in the World Rally Championship. While those plans haven’t come to fruition this year, they remain very close to the forefront of Aava’s mind.
“This is still the plan,” he said, “but we have to make some changes to some of the stages to make this happen. Right now, we have a contract [with WRC Promoter] for one year only, just for this year. If we are going to make changes to the route, we must have a contract for a longer term. We are looking forward to talking about this.
“I have convinced enough people in our organizing committee and we now do it with scientists to really calculate everything – the plan is not to make any crazy jump, but really we have found from the nature this quite fast place where the road is dropping away so the landing will be smooth.
“If it could happen and finally if the cars could jump really 100 meters it could be something iconic – something that rally fans start to visit not only during Rally Estonia but in the rest of the year as well. The interest from the fans is really big for this.”
