EUROPEAN RALLY CHAMPION KAJETAN KAJETANOWICZ TO BEGIN HIS TITLE DEFENSE IN RALLY LIEPĀJA Liepāja, January 22, 2016 Rally Liepāja, the opening round of the sixty-fourth FIA European Rally Championship season, will have entries from seventeen European countries and one from South America – Paraguay. Latvia will be represented by eight crews, including the 2015 ERC Junior class runner-up Ralfs Sirmacis, who will be driving a Škoda Fabia R5. The winter event will take place from February 5 to 7 on the Liepāja and Kuldīga region roads. ERC1 class has 14 entries, with all four current R5 class cars represented – Ford Fiesta (six crews), Škoda Fabia (five), Citroen DS3 (two) and Peugeot 208 T16 (one). A Fiesta R5 will be driven by the Polish crew of Kajetan Kajetanowicz / Jaroslaw Baran, for whom it will be the first of ten rallies trying to defend their 2015 European champion’s title. Also among entries, the well-known Russian driver Alexey Lukyanuk, who set six of eleven fastest stage times last year, but was not able to fight for the overall victory due to a crash. In addition to Sirmacis, a Fabia R5 will be driven by another Latvian crew – Raimonds Kisiels / Arnis Ronis, for whom this will be a return to ERC (in 2013, they drove a Mini JCW RRC and were fifth). One of the two Citroen DS3 cars will be driven by last year’s champion in ERC2 class, Hungarian Dávid Botka, while the lone Peugeot 208 T16 will be driven by the Italian crew of Giacomo Costenaro / Justin Bardini. Seven crews will battle it out in ERC2 class, all driving various generations of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Among the entries, we have Latvian champions in LRC2 class Jānis Vorobjovs / Andris Mālnieks and multiple time Latvian champion Māris Neikšāns, who will return to rallying after a multiple year break. In addition to them, there will also be crews from Italy, Russia, Poland and even Paraguay, with the South American crew beginning their European rally programme in Liepāja, with the goal of learning to drive in new conditions and further improving their driving skills. The most popular class, ERC3 (consisting of R2 and R3 class cars), also has a few locals competing, with four crews driving under the Latvian flag. FIA World Rallycross Championship driver Reinis Nitišs will be driving a Sports Racing Technologies prepared car, and his co-driver this year will be Andis Neikšāns. Emīls Blūms and Nikolay Gryazin will also represent Latvia, with all three of the drivers at the wheel of Peugeot 208 R2 cars and competing in the ERC Junior class. The fourth Latvian Automobile Federation (LAF) licence holder with be Petr Turkin, who will be driving an ASRT Rally Team prepared Citroen DS3 R3T Racing. ADAC Opel Rallye Junior Team will be represented with three Opel Adam R2 cars, driven by Germans Marijan Griebel and Julius Tannert, as well as Chris Ingram from Great Britain. In addition to that, the 2015 FIA European Rally Trophy winner and 2014 and 2015 Turkish rally champion Murat Bostanci has also registered for the event, moving from his regular all-wheel drive car to a Ford Fiesta R2. A Norwegian/Swedish crew of Jan Steve Røkland / Patrik Barth (Peugeot 208 R2) will also take part and, in fact, they were the very first to register for this year’s Rally Liepāja! 1 / 5 Along with the first round of the FIA European Rally Championship, two Latvian Rally Championship rounds will also take place during the event. A few of the aforementioned crews will contest both the European and Latvian championship rounds, but it’s also important to note that the LRČ rounds will be contested by last year’s LRČ1 class Latvian champion Guntis Lielkājis, co-driven by Ivars Grošus, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. Fifteen year old Kalle Rovanperä, the son of former FIA World Rally Championship driver Harri Rovanperä, has also registered for the event, driving a Škoda Fabia S2000. We can also add that another talented youngster will be tackling the stages – Mārtiņš Sesks, son of the Mayor of Liepāja Uldis Sesks, who will represent LMT Autosport Academy. Rally Liepāja will begin on Friday, February 5, with the qualifying stage, starting position choice for the top 15 crews and the ceremonial start. The first six stages of the 2016 FIA European Rally Championship will take place on Saturday, February 6, on the Kuldīga region roads, with the day containing not only the longest stage of the rally (SS3/4 Neste Oil at 25.14 km), but also a stage taking part in the twilight – SS6 Kuldīga 2, set to begin at 16:15. The event will continue on Sunday, February 7, when the best European drivers will compete on the roads of Liepāja region. There will be seven stages, one of which is the Vecpils special stage, including the autocross track. To determine the winner, the crews will return to Liepāja and compete on the final city stage around the Great Amber concert hall. After finishing the racing part of the event, drivers and spectators are welcome to the Great Amber for the awards ceremony. We would also like to remind you that all the news and other information about Rally Liepāja is available on the official website www.lvrally.com and on social media Twitter @LVRally, Facebook /LVRally, YouTube /RallyLiepāja and Instagram /lvrally. FIA European Rally Championship round Rally Liepāja is possible thanks to the support of the Latvian government and the rally city of Liepāja. We would also like to thank our sponsors Neste Oil, NPK Expert, Blue Shock Race, Vivus.lv, our partner Kuldīga city, as well as supporters Baltijas Helikopters, Canon ibServiss Rīga, Castrol, Liepājas Olimpiskais Centrs and SweCon. Informative support is provided by the official news portal DELFI and media partners StarFM, FHM, Go4Speed, JCDecaux, Kurzemes Radio and Zebra. Rally Liepāja would also not be possible without our rally friends: Dardedze, FN Serviss, Guard Systems, Holography, Jānis Pūce, N&J, Liepājas Datoru Centrs, Ramirent, Red Bull, SignTech, Skrīveru Saldumi, Venden and Törley. A special thank you goes out to the Latvian Automobile Federation. 2 / 5 FIA European Rally Championship round Rally Liepāja entry list (37 crews): Competitor Driver Country Co-driver Country Car Class Category Jan Steve ERC 3 Jan Steve Røkland NOR Patrik Barth SWE Peugeot 208 R2 R2 Røkland Junior Dávid Botka Dávid Botka HUN Péter Szeles HUN Citroën DS3 R5 R5 ERC Federico Della Federico Della Casa CHE Domenico Pozzi ITA Citroën DS3 R5 R5 ERC Casa Frank Tore Frank Tore Larsen NOR Torstein Eriksen NOR Ford Fiesta R5 R5 ERC Larsen Przemysław ERC 3 MSZ Racing Łukasz Pieniążek POL POL Opel Adam R2 R2 Mazur Junior Hernan Vargas Mitsubishi Lancer Jose Luis Jacquet Rios PRY PRY N ERC 2 Peña Evolution X Tiger Energy Tomasz Kasperczyk POL Damian Syty POL Ford Fiesta R5 R5 ERC Drink Rally Team ERC 3 Emīls Blūms LVA Rūta Lībiete LVA Peugeot 208 R2 R2 Junior Mindaugas Autorikona Laurynas Diržininkas LTU LTU Ford Fiesta R2 R2 ERC 3 Valiukas Alexey Lukyanuk Alexey Lukyanuk RUS Alexey Arnautov RUS Ford Fiesta R5 R5 ERC Citroën DS3 R3T ASRT Rally Team Petr Turkin LVA Vasily Mirkotan LVA R3T ERC 3 Racing ARABLE RACING László Német HUN János Szegő HUN Peugeot 208 R2 R2 ERC 3 KFT. C-Rally Jarosław Kołtun POL Ireneusz Pleskot POL Ford Fiesta R5 R5 ERC TRT Czech Rally Roman Odložilík CZE Martin Tureček CZE Ford Fiesta R5 R5 ERC Sport Neiksans Rally Mitsubishi Lancer Māris Neikšāns LVA Anrijs Jesse LVA N ERC 2 Sport Evolution IX Lotos Rally Team Kajetan Kajetanowicz POL Jaroslaw Baran POL Ford Fiesta R5 R5 ERC Sports Racing ERC 3 Nikolay Gryazin LVA Yaroslav Fedorov RUS Peugeot 208 R2 R2 Technologies Junior Simone ERC 3 Simone Tempestini ROM Chiarcossi Matteo ITA Peugeot 208 R2 R2 Tempestini Junior Mindaugas ERC 3 Jonas Pipiras Jonas Pipiras LTU LTU Škoda Fabia R2 R2 Čepulis Junior ERC 3 Joonas Tokee Joonas Tokee FIN Jani Salo FIN Peugeot 208 R2 R2 Junior Peugeot 208 T16 Giacomo Costenaro ITA Justin Bardini ITA R5 ERC R5 Castrol Ford Murat Bostanci TUR Onur Vatansever TUR Ford Fiesta R2T R2T ERC 3 Team Türkiye Mitsubishi Lancer Igor Bulantsev Igor Bulantsev RUS Marina Danilova RUS N ERC 2 Evolution X ADAC Opel ERC 3 Marijan Griebel DEU Pirmin Winklhofer DEU Opel Adam R2 R2 Rallye Junior Junior Team 3 / 5 Competitor Driver Country Co-driver Country Car Class Category Opel Rallye ERC 3 Chris Ingram GBR Katrin Becker DEU Opel Adam R2 R2 Junior Team Junior ADAC Opel ERC 3 Julius Tannert DEU Jennifer Thielen LUX Opel Adam R2 R2 Rallye Junior Junior Team Hubert Ptaszek Hubert Ptaszek POL Kamil Kozdroń POL Škoda Fabia R5 R5 ERC Sports Racing Ralfs Sirmacis LVA Artūrs Šimins LVA Škoda Fabia R5 R5 ERC Technologies Sports Racing Raul Jeets EST Andrus Toom EST Škoda Fabia R5 R5 ERC Technologies Neiksans Rally Mitsubishi Lancer Leonid Vilde Dmitry Chumak N ERC 2 Sport Evolution X Mitsubishi Lancer Filip Nivette Filip Nivette POL Kamil Heller POL N ERC 2 Evolution X Raimonds Kisiels LVA Arnis Ronis LVA Škoda Fabia R5 R5 ERC Sports Racing ERC 3 Reinis Nitišs LVA Andis Neikšāns LVA Peugeot 208 R2 R2 Technologies Junior Tlustak Racing Antonin Tlustak CZE Ladislav Kucera CZE Škoda Fabia R5 R5 ERC Giacomo Mitsubishi Lancer Giacomo Scattolon ITA Paolo Zanini ITA N ERC 2 Scattolon Evolution IX Mitsubishi Lancer Vorobjovs Racing Jānis Vorobjovs LVA Andris Mālnieks LVA N ERC 2 Evolution X ERC 3 Dominik Broz Dominik Broz CZE Petr Tesinsky CZE Ford Fiesta R2 R2 Junior Jan Steve Jan Steve Røkland NOR Patrik Barth SWE Peugeot 208 R2 R2 ERC 3 Røkland Dávid Botka Dávid Botka HUN Péter Szeles HUN Citroën DS3 R5 R5 ERC Federico Della Federico Della Casa CHE Domenico Pozzi ITA