In the most powerful all-wheel drive class, ERC, where crews are driving R5 and S2000 class cars, a total of seven entries have been received. This will be the third time contesting Rally Liepāja for Alexey Lukyanuk. In 2013, he was in a tough battle with Frenchman Francois Delecour for third place. Even though his hopes for a top three finish cam short (he went off road on the penultimate stage and had to retire because of the car damage), Lukyanuk received the prestigious Colin McRae Flat Out Trophy for his efforts. Last year, Alexey crashed on stage two and later restarted under Rally 2 rules, setting the quickest times on six of the eleven special stages.

2015 European champion in ERC2 class Dávid Botka has also registered for the rally. Last year he contested the event with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX and was fifth in ERC2 class. For 2016, he has moved up to the ERC class and, co-driven by Péter Szeles, will be racing a Citroën DS3 R5. Currently, the only entered Škoda Fabia R5 will be driven by the Polish crew of Hubert Ptaszek / Kamil Kozdron, while a Ford Fiesta R5 will be driven by multiple crews – Tomasz Kasperczyk / Damian Sytyviena and Jarosław Kołtun / Ireneusz Pleskot representing Poland and Frank Tore Larsen / Torstein Eriksen from Norway. Another Ford Fiesta R5 will be driven by Czech crew of Roman Odložilik / Martin Tureček.

Rally Liepāja has also received an entry from a crew very far away – Jose Luis Jacquet Rios / Hernan Vargas Peña will be driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, having travelled to Liepāja all the way from Paraguay in South America.

The front-wheel drive class, ERC3, currently has received six entries. Two of those will be driving with a licence issued by the Latvian Automobile Federation – Emīls Blūms / Rūta Lībiete (Peugeot 208 R2) and Petr Turkin / Vasily Mirkotan (Citroën DS3 R3T Racing). In addition to them, Lithuanian Laurynas Dirižinkas (Ford Fiesta R2) and Lukasz Pieniazek (Opel Adam R2) from Poland will also contest the rally. A couple of Peugeot 208 R2 cars will be driven by Hungarian László Német and Norwegian Steve Røkland.

2016 will be the fourth year in a row with Rally Liepāja as part of the FIA European Rally Championship. In this, the sixty-fourth season of the championship, the Latvian round will open the season and will be the only event in which crews drive on studded tyres.

Rally Liepāja tickets, which will let spectators attend both days of the event, are available at a price of 25.00 EUR. It is possible to buy the rally pass on the official website of the Latvian Rally Championship at http://autorally.lv.

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, Guard Systems, Holography, Jānis Pūce, Liepājas Datoru Centrs, Ramirent, Red Bull, SignTech, Skrīveru Saldumi, Venden and Törley. A special thank you goes out to the Latvian Automobile Federation.

Jānis Unbedahts. Photo: fiaerc.com