Trinidad and Tobago Rally...

Just off the coast of Venezuela lies the islands of Trinidad and Tobago and cover some 2,000 sq. miles of tropical wonderland.  The deep sand makes for some great looking stage rally roads with a mix between dirt/ravel and beachlike sand.  Yes, stage rally roads.  Even on the smallish islands of the Caribbean there lies the desire for this sport.

Some great photos and video (shown below) of a two wheel save which shows the "steer into the roll" method working perfectly.  Unfortunately the one Nissan in the event raced by Shelford Robinson evidently DNF'd as it does not show up in the final rankings.  That said, there are some GREAT rally vehicles here including some open wheel rally racecars.

Trinidad and Tobago Rally website...

 

Great Vintage Vehicle Rally In Australia...

Vintage offroad racing has been on the upswing here in North America with the popularity of the NORRA series of events in Baja Mexico but its popularity hasn't moved over into the world of stage rally.  While there are a handful of vintage racers still out there--Greg Healey's '78 280Z, the Huebbe's VW Bug and Jason Lightner's '76 Porsche to name a few, gathering enough of them in one particular place at one particular time to make a legit event would be unheard of.

A bit of that has to do just with the popularity of the sport here in the States...there just aren't enough fans to have built enough vehicles over the years to create a stable of raceable vintage vehicles.

Australia is different however.

Prime example?  The Alpine Rally 2013 that just took place.  The event saw 99 "classic" vehicle entries (when was the last time a stage rally drew 99 entries here in the States let alone 99 vintage vehicles?) to cover up to 256 competitive kilometers for a cost of $795.  For an additional point of interest the organizers estimated that to handle the road closures over this event they would need 150 road closure officials and an additional 50 control officials.  Compare that to the cost and number of workers we in the US would use for our events.

The collection of vehicles at this event was especially cool.  Far from a collection blue Subarus and red and white Evos we have tons of RWD action of all sorts and a couple drivers we even know over here in North America (Will Orders and Alister McRae).  Enjoy some of the better photos courtesy of Peter and Luke Whitten.

Oh and the results??  Jeffrey David took the win in a Porsche 911, Alister McRae finished 2nd in a Group 4 Ford Escort and third was Wayne Hoye in a Datsun 260Z.

Alpine Rally Website...

 

8th Internext Rally Vsetín: Four championships' conclusion

Cross country rally Vsetín is the only Czech race that has survived for more than two years. Since 2003, when the first edition took place instead of another cancelled race, "Vsetín" became extremely popular amongst drivers and fans. This rally is very specific and is more sprint than long-distance rally. Special stages are usually 10 kilometers long with eight or nine timed sections.

This year’s edition of "Vsetín" has been hit hard by bad weather. Five days of heavy rain has made part of the track very difficult to cross and organizer had to skip this most attractive part of the race. Nevertheless the race didn’t suffer from lack of competition or thrill. The stakes were high, Czech and Polish international championship titles were still in games as well as FIA CEZ Trophy.

In previous seven years only two men shared the title; Miroslav Rís (2003-2005) and Miroslav Zapletal (2006-2009). Now two pilots had a chance to become new Czech champion; provisional leader Zdenek Porízek and Viktor Chytka. Under normal circumstances Chytka with T2 Mitsubishi Pajero wouldn’t stand a chance against Porízek’s X-Raid-produced BMW X5 CC. But with last-minute change for state-of-art Hummer H3 Evo Chytka’s chances rose significantly.

The first to hit the road on Saturday Chytka fully took the advantage of a clean track. He stormed the selection with stunning 24 second advantage on the second Wlodzimierz Grajek (Mitsubishi Pajero MRT). This section was repeated twice and while almost everyone improved its time only Chytka and Grajek were slower due to much dirty track. The second portion of the race consisted of three gravel specials across the forest. Chytka utilized the familiarity of home track and maintained his lead. Chytka is the only one to take part in every “Vsetín” since its creation. Relatively quietly Porízek moved up the order, he overtook Zoli Garamvölgyi (Nissan Pathfinder) and Károly Fazekas (BMW X5) and was only 4 seconds behind second placed Grajek.

The last part of 8th Internext Rally Vsetín happened on the same track but in reverse order. Chytka gave Hummer the second win in Vsetín after last year Zapletal’s triumph. On the very last special Grajek failed to keep Porízek behind and lost the second place. Six minutes behind the winner Dariusz Zyla (Mitsubishi Pajero) finished the race on eighth position to get third place in Czech championship.

Legendary five time Dakar winner Josef Machácek (Yamaha Raptor) came to Vsetín to get his first national title and he succeeded. Second placed youngster Václav Bazika (Yamaha Raptor) tested new machine from Machácek’s production. In thrilling fight for the third place Vlastimil Tosenovský (E-ATV 690) lost to Rudolf Sajan (Gas Gas 450 HP) but kept trio of Polish rivals behind. The only woman behind the handlebars of quad was only 17-year old Sandra Ulrichová.

Note: Cup of Slovak Republic was running concurrently with Czech championship with the same race schedule and classification and thus with the same results.

Final standings of Czech international championship - cars:
1. Zdenek Prízek / Marek Sýkora 85 points
2. Viktor Chytka / Zdenek Ulehla 75 points
3. Dariusz Zyla / Malgorzata Zyla 62 points
4. Juraj Ulrich / Daniela Ulrichová 44 points (1st in T2 class)

Final standings of Czech international championship - quads:
1. Josef Machácek 100 points
2. Klaudiusz Rostowski 82 points
3. Vlastimil Tošenovský 49 points

Thanks to slightly different points’ distribution four pilots were supposed to fight for Polish title; Porízek, Chytka, Zyla and Grajek. Chytka as an event winner took maximum of possible points which shifted him to second place in general ranking of RMPST (Rajdowe Mistrzostwa Polski Samochodów Terenowych) just one point ahead of Grajek.

Note: Rumors that last event of RMPST, planned to take part in Sopot, would be cancelled turned up to be true. This made Zdenek Porízek Polish champion, too.

Final standings of Polish international championship – T1 class:
1. Zdenek Prízek / Marek Sýkora 24 points
2. Viktor Chytka / Zdenek Ulehla 20 points
3. Wlodzimierz Grajek / Rafal Cieply 19 points

Final standings in Polish international championship – T2 class:
1. Juraj Ulrich / Daniela Ulrichová 17 points
2. Zbigniew Wieclawek / Ryszard Wieclawek 12 points
3. Grzegorz Szwagrzyk / Piotr Brakowiecki 8 points

Final standings in Polish international championship – TH class:
1. Robert Lyzwa / Michal Krotiuk 6 points

For second year cross running country rallies have their own Central European Zone Trophy. Premiere edition was won by Balázs Szalay. He had the best conditions to regain the trophy but decided to skip “Vsetín.” So the doors became open for a whole bunch of others. Károly Fazekas was provisional leader, Zdenek Porízek was two points behind, Dariusz Zyla another three and Viktor Chytka with 20 points also had a chance to replace Szalay. At the end Porízek managed to outrun Fazekas and took the honors.

Note: Last round of CEZ Trophy, Baja Montenegro, was called off again this year.

Final standings of CEZ Cross country rally trophy – T1 class:
1. Zdenek Prízek / Marek Sýkora 34 points
2. Károly Fazekas / Péter Maurer 32 points
3. Viktor Chytka / Zdenek Ulehla 30 points

Final standings of CEZ Cross country rally trophy – T2 class:
1. Juraj Ulrich / Daniela Ulrichová 57 points
2. Grzegorz Szwagrzyk / Piotr Brakowiecki 32 points
3. Zbigniew Wieclawek / Ryszard Wieclawek 25 points

Final standings of CEZ Cross country rally trophy – TH class:
1. Robert Lyzwa / Michal Krotiuk 30 points
2. Dávid Czirkelbach / Péter Szász 18 points

Baja Karelia (May, 21. - 23.)

The penultimate race of Russian CCR championship was held in Republic of Karelia close to Finnish borders. Winner of previous round Alexander Mironenko won a short prologue but gaps between the main contenders were in seconds. Two seconds behind were Boris Gadasin and Alexander Zheludov.

Organizers prepared just one special stage which was run four times. It wasn’t easy as tracks were narrow with many stones and dust didn’t make it easier. Mironenko was the first on track and also the first to change the punctured tyre. Zheludov had an advantage because he already knew Karelia’s tracks from rally. But Gadasin was faster and therefore first after Saturday. Mironenko returned to top 3 overtaking Ilya Kuznetsov.

Before the Sunday’s stage rain soaked the terrain but without consequences for competitors. Zheludov tried to defeat Gadasin but failed to reach his goal. Gadasin maintained the lead and won his first race on home soil this year. Mironenko finished third. Kuznetsov started the last special with 11 second advantage on Bogdan Novitskiy but finished with 45 second loss. Sixth overall was Alexander Olejnikov winner of T2 class. He was chased by a bunch of Land Cruisers they just haven’t found the way how to catch him.

Overall classification:
1. Boris Gadasin / Vladimir Demyanenko  G-Force Proto  3:39:06
2. Alexander Zheludov / Andrey Rudnickiy  Mitsubishi L200  + 01:46
3. Alexander Mironenko / Sergey Lebedev  Nissan Frontier  + 10:37
4. Bogdan Novickiy / Vitali Yevtekhov  G-Force Proto  + 18:00
5. Ilya Kuznetsov / Andrej Neshin  Mitsubishi L200  + 18:45
6. Alexander Oleynikov / Alexej Kuzmich  Nissan Patrol  + 28:46

The Khazar Steppe (April, 23. - 25.)

The second race of Russian CCR championship took place in April in Astrakhan region which is known for its plain and vast steppes. Although four crews of last year’s top 5 were missing there were enough candidates for the first place. Among them were leader of FIA Baja Cup Bogdan Novitskiy with team colleague Boris Gadasin (both G-Force Proto) and national championship leader Alexander Zheludov (Mitsubishi L200).

Novitskiy fulfilled the expectations and won the prologue ahead of Zheludov and Alexander Mironenko (Nissan Frontier). Gadasin was significantly delayed by stone that hit and damaged the brakes. He eliminated most of his loss on Saturday’s navigationally difficult stage. This one’s was, for a change, cruel to Novitskiy - he spent 20 minutes repairing the accelerate rod. His first position was suddenly Mironenko’s first place.

Fourth place in general rankings belonged to Alexander Olejnikov (Nissan Patrol), the fastest one of T2 cars. He was followed by another T2 Patrol driven by Alexei Yashkov. The extraordinary status Kamaz trucks have nowadays was proved once again on this rally. Young gun Eduard Nikolaev, guided by six time Dakar winner Vladimir Chagin, was sixth overall after Saturday leaving 25 other rivals behind.

Sunday was the day of Gadasin’s brutal attack. He was fast, much faster than Mironenko. He was virtual leader already before the last section when mechanical malfunction stopped him. Skilled rally driver Zheludov is fast but still has some bad rally habits. Like sitting comfortably in a car while his co-driver is digging the car out of sand trap they are stuck in… Nevertheless he withdrew few kilometers later. And as Novitskiy failed to complete the race as well Mironenko was left on top alone.

After more than 200 kilometers Mironenko celebrated his win ahead of Ilya Kuznetsov (Mitsubishi L200) and Roman Briskindov (Mitsubishi Pajero). Eduard Nikolaev improved his position by two places and finished fourth overall. Vladimir Frolov took T2 winning position (Mitsubishi Pajero), Nissans grabbed third and fourth thanks to Olejnikov and Igor Sadovskiy.

Overall classification:
1. Alexander Mironenko / Sergey Lebedev  Nissan Frontier  6:10:02
2. Ilya Kuznetsov / Andrej Neshin  Mitsubishi Pajero  + 27:21
3. Roman Briskindov / Alexej Alexandrov  Mitsubishi Pajero  + 33:00
4. Eduard Nikolaev / Vyatcheslav Kizukaev / Vladimir Chagin  Kamaz 4326  + 40:36
5. Yuri Borovikov / Vladimir Rogozhin  VAZ 2123  + 56:53
6. Vladimir Frolov / Yevgeni Kalatchev  Mitsubishi Pajero  + 57:53