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One of the fastest and most spectacular rallies on the schedule awaits the FIA European Rally Championship crews when Rally Liepāja hosts the third round of the all-action 2019 ERC season and the second event to count for the all-new Abarth Rally Cup. Forty-five crews will chase ERC points on the high-speed Latvian event from 24-26 May, with a record 23 eligible for ERC Junior to underline the championship’s ongoing efforts to provide a platform of progression for young talents from national level aiming for the top of the sport.
Defending ERC champion Alexey Lukyanuk is the fifth seed for what will be a wide-open battle for victory. ERC2 has a season-high eight entrants, including three drivers from the new-for-2019 Abarth Rally Cup, while Efrén Llarena, leader of the Pirelli-supported ERC3 Junior category, tops a 19-strong ERC3 line-up. Aside from the exciting entry, Rally Liepāja has undergone significant changes for its seventh consecutive ERC appearance. Moving from October to May, Rally Liepāja’s opening leg on Saturday 25 May is based around Talsi, which has allowed organisers to include what are described as Latvia’s ‘golden fund’ of stages, before reverting to more traditional territory for the closing leg on Sunday 26 May. This year’s Rally Liepāja coincides with the annual FIA Volunteers Weekend and ERC drivers will be celebrating those who give up their time for free to help make motorsport events happen.  Teenage talents Mārtiņš Sesks and Oliver Solberg start Rally Liepāja with a clear shared objective in mind: to build experience in R5 machinery. For 19-year-old Sesks, his home event marks his debut in a top-of-the range car, one of two prize drives from promoter Eurosport Events for winning the ERC3 Junior crown in 2018. Seventeen-year-old Solberg is tackling his first gravel event in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 having won the two snow rallies he’s tackled in the German machine. While both drivers insist results are secondary to gaining knowledge, Rally Liepāja nevertheless represents a gilt-edged opportunity for the exciting young pair to impress on an international stage. |
Early title pacesetter Łukasz Habaj heads the overall list for the Latvia-based Sports Racing Technologies operation, which expands to a two-car attack with the inclusion of teenage hope Oliver Solberg. Petter Solberg’s son is seeded number 10, one place ahead of hometown hero Mārtiņš Sesks, taking part in one of two prize drives as his reward for winning the ERC3 Junior title in 2018. Chris Ingram, the ERC1 Junior leader after two rounds, is the second seed followed by double ERC Junior title winner Marijan Griebel.