Twenty years ago, an impatient Ott Tänak watched Thomas Schie guide a Toyota Corolla WRC to victory on the Saaremaa Rally. That, he told himself, would be him one day.
He didn’t have to wait long. In 2008, he stood on top of a Subaru Impreza at the finish. Victorious. Winning at home has always been a big deal and when he did just that at Estonia’s maiden round of the world championship in 2020, he created a memory that will live long in everybody’s memory.
But Saaremaa is home-home – it’s the island off Estonia’s west coast where he grew up.
“It is definitely the most popular rally event in Estonia apart from the WRC round, obviously,” Tänak told DirtFish.
“But it’s always been like this. You can say about WRC, that this popularity has come in last couple of years, but Saaremaa… it’s kind of legendary. It’s always been there. It was there before I was born and it will be there after me. It’s a huge event, actually.”
And it’s a huge event that’s run without Estonia’s only world champion since 2017.
He added: “I haven’t been in Saaremaa for long, long time, and as a home place, it was something I had to put in my calendar. Definitely, I am looking forward [to it].”
Sharing the RedGrey Ford Fiesta Rally2 with him will be 2022 Junior World Rally champion and rising Estonian driver Robert Virves. The 26-year-old is no stranger to sitting alongside Tänak.
“I don’t know how many times he has co-driven,” said Tänak. “Professionally… I think none! But at an amateur level, he’s done a couple of rallies. He’s actually been co-driving for me [already], in Greece he was at the pre-event test and in Finland as well. He’s been doing OK.”
Tänak’s competition on the 12-stage event, which starts from Kuressaare this evening, includes leading Estonian privateers Ken Torn and Gregor Jeets – the latter running out of Ott’s own RedGrey stable.
Rally Estonia director Urmo Aava’s rallying comeback continues with his third event this season at the wheel of a Subaru.
