Latvians Sirmacis / Šimins come away with Rally Liepāja victory

For the first time since a pure FIA European Rally Championship round takes place in Latvia, a local driver has won it – Sports Racing Technologies crew of Ralfs Sirmacis and Artūrs Šimins won their third ERC event of the year in Liepāja on Sunday afternoon. In addition to that, two champions were also crowned in Latvia – Kajetan Kajetanowicz / Jaroslav Baran became European champions for the second year in a row, while Marijan Griebel became the ERC Junior champion.

Rally Liepāja 2016 Video

Rally Liepāja 2016 Video

Latvians Sirmacis / Šimins lead Rally Liepāja after leg one

FIA European Rally Championship event Rally Liepāja began with the first seven special stages on Saturday, September 17. After Leg one, Latvian crew of Ralfs Sirmacis and Artūrs Šimins (Škoda Fabia R5) are the leaders by 30.7 seconds. ERC Junior championship has had some extremely close battles, with the current leaders, Marijan Griebel and Chris Ingram, separated by only 0.7 seconds, while the top seven crews are all within 15 seconds.

Rally Liepāja 2016 Video

Rally Liepāja spectator guide

Ninth round of the FIA European Rally Championship, Rally Liepāja, is set to begin today with the qualifying stage at 17:00, followed by the opening ceremony. For the next three days, the best European rally drivers will tackle the roads of Liepāja and Kuldīga regions, to show fans what they are capable of. This year’s Rally Liepāja is an important event, as we could possibly witness the crowning of both the European champion and the European Junior champion!