In the last weekend from 15th – 16th February, in the region of St.Petersburg, two crews of international racing team from Latvia ,,RE Autoclub” – Jouni Ampuja/Tapio Suominen and the world famous WRC rally pilot Harri Rovanperä with his co-driver Jouni Närhi succesfully debuted in the cross-country rally competitions ,,Baja Russia – Northern Forest 2013”, achieving the 2nd and 9th place in the overall ranking. Therefore, the „RE Autoclub” third crew piloted by Russian Alexander Terentyev/Alexander Terentyev Jr. took the 20th place.

The cross-country rally competitions ,,Baja Russia – Northern Forest 2013” once again took place after two years interruption, it was the first round of the Russian Rally-Raid Championship and a FIA Cross-Country Rally World CUP candidate event. On the starting line stood 43 crews from Russia, Finland, Latvia and Ukraine, and finished – 28 crews. The race stages consisted from tricky and technically complicated sections – bumps, sharp curves, narrow hi-speed sections and jumps, with overall length 306.79 kilometers.

1st day competitions: Rovanpera – 2nd place, Ampuja – 5th place, Terentyev – 13th place.
After the 5,23 km long prologue, Harri Rovanperä/Jouni Näri divided 2nd place with Russian crew Yevgeni Firsov/Vadim Filatov (Nissan Datsun, racing team „REK”), which was 6 seconds behind the leading crew – Vladimir Vasilyev/Vitaly Evtehova from „G-Force Motorsport”, that in 2012 became a FIA Cross-Country rally world cup winner in the team classification.Therefore, the 5th position was taken by other crew of racing team „RE Autoclub” piloted by Jouni Ampuja, who is a head of driving instructors in Juha Kankkunen Driving Academy, only 1,4 seconds behind the crews of Harri Rovanperä and Firsov.

2nd day competitions: Ampuja – 2nd, Rovanpera – 9th place, Terentyev – 20th place.
In the second day of competitions, participants needed to race in more than 300km, where fifteen crews withdrawed. In the end Jouni Ampuja/Tapio Suominen took 2nd position in overall, that was 5 minutes and 54 seconds behind the leading crew Vladimir Vasilyev/Vitaly Evtehov from the racing team ,,G-Force Motorsport”. Harri Rovanperä/Jouni Närhi took 9th position. „RE Autoclub” Russian pilot Alexander Terentyev/Alexander Terentyev Junior (Toyota Land Cruiser 200) took 20th place in overall rankings.

,,This event was the first Cross-Country rally competitions for me, therefore I did not know, what to expect. WRC cars are technically different, therefore the driving technique and style also is different. However, on the second day first stage I set the best time. Unfortunately, on the furtherther stage the technical problem with the gearbox occurred – the 3rd gear started ,,dissapear”, and after a few minutes – we lost two more gears. Dispite that, we finished in the second place in overall. I am satisfied with a result!”, says Jouni Ampuja.