Widest-staged Tet Rally Liepāja has concluded
Last weekend, across a geographically extensive territory, the Latvian round of the FIA European Rally Championship Tet Rally Liepāja was hosted. This event, which simultaneously featured two rounds of the Latvian Rally Championship, saw a total of 68 crews, with 136 drivers representing 26 different countries, including Japan, New Zealand, and Argentina from far beyond Europe. Over the course of ten special stages, a local crew from Liepāja, Mārtiņš Sesks and Renārs Francis, clinched their second victory of the 2023 European championship and the second in the history of Tet Rally Liepāja.
Tet Rally Liepāja took place across the Kurzeme region, covering a geographically extensive area. The rally's special stages were held in four municipalities and two cities: Tukums, Talsi, Kuldīga, the rally's hometown of Liepāja, and the Dienvidkurzeme municipality. The event encountered challenging weather conditions, with dust at the beginning of the rally and rain later. For safety reasons, the total distance covered by the crews was set at nine special stages and 156 kilometres.
This rally provided spectators the opportunity to witness the performance of a wide range of experienced drivers, including those with WRC experience like Hayden Paddon and Mads Østberg, European Rally Champion Efrén Llarena, our northern neighbours’ rally pilots Mikko Heikkilä (Finland) and Georg Linnamäe (Estonia), and the talented local driver Mārtiņš Sesks. These are just a few of the 68 drivers, who participated in the competition for victory in both the overall Tet Rally Liepāja standings and their respective categories. When accounted altogether, they covered almost 10 000 kilometres in the special stages. To put this in perspective, that is over five times the length of Latvia's 1836-kilometer border, making it equivalent to circling Latvia more than five times.
"Rally is a team effort. Starting with its very foundation – the crews. The organization of the rally is just as important team work. Given the extensive nature of rally, it is not only our organizing team, but also a wide network of partners, which has been further expanded this year, making our Tet Rally Liepāja team even bigger and stronger! Thank you to each one of you for your involvement and dedicated work, because only by working together can we achieve the high goals we set for ourselves!
At the same time, our utmost gratitude to our rally spectators. Year after year, you adapt to changing safety regulations, whether it is the 30-minute rule or updated safety zones. Your unwavering commitment to abiding by these regulations remains high. This allows us to look confidently towards the future, as your discipline is one of the most crucial cornerstones for organizing safe and successful rallies.
Finally, despite the challenges thrown our way, the responsible authorities were able to make decisions that delivered safe and successful competition, which could be observed worldwide through the RallyTV app. And what can be more inspiring than a Latvian crew's victory in our Latvian round – Tet Rally Liepāja!" said Tet Rally Liepāja director Raimonds Strokšs at the conclusion of the rally.
"Thank you to the rally organizers and participants for the emotions and the power we could experience during the rally. We are delighted with the victory of our fellow Latvian, Mārtiņš Sesks, which is yet another proof that Latvia can be a player at a global level. This applies to both sports and technological achievements and innovations, which, in turn, are showcased by Tet with its services and solutions. The organizers also demonstrated their capabilities, and next year, we can all together celebrate even grander rally festivities by hosting a round of the World Rally Championship (WRC)," expressed Tet Chairman of the Board, Uldis Tatarčuks.
The results of the FIA European Rally Championship round are available here: https://www.fiaerc.com/erc/results---standings/rally-results/rally-latvia/results/
The results of the Latvian Rally Championship round are available here: https://autorally.lv/?s=2023&r=219