17.02.2014

From February 14th – 16th 50 kilometers north of St. Petersburg the start was given for the first round of FIA Cross Country World Cup. International cross-country rally racing team “RE Autoclub” from Latvia took part in this competition with 4 sportsmen from Finland and Russia.

The start was given for 47 crews from Russia, Latvia, Finland, Belarus, Ukraine, Italy, Kazahstan, Germay, Poland, Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, but only 26 of them reached the finish line. All participants had to complete 312,58km long rally stage, which, as participants admitted themselves, was much faster and more dynamic than last year.

First competion day started with 6.51km long prologue after which Finnish Junior Rally Champion and participant of more than 200 rally stages – Tapio Suominen together with his co-driver Jukka Tuomisto ranked in 3rd position. Other „RE Autoclub” crews ranked in 14th place (I.Kuznetsov/R.Elagin), 18th place (A.Terentyev/A.Berkut) and 29th place (A.Kolembet/S.Kolembet).

On the 2nd day of competiton especially fierce battle turned out between Suominen/Tuomisto and WRC pilot Yazeed Alrajhi (http://www.yazeedracing.com), that for Suominen resulted with 2nd place in overall (+00:01:09). „RE Autoclub” crew A.Kolembet/S.Kolembet after 2nd competion day ranked in 17th place (+0:33:38) and A.Terentyev/A.Berkut – 26th position in overall (+1:02:39). Unfortunately, for the technical reasons I.Kuznetsov/R.Elagin didn’t succeed to reach the finish line and was forced to withdraw from the competion.

In the closing day of the Baja „Russia – Northern Forest 2014” participants needed to complete 101.53km rally raid stage. Unfortunately, for „RE Autoclub” team this stage wasn’t successful – last years Russian Baja vice-champion Suominen with Mitsubishi MPR 2 hit the snow bank that resulted with loss of 20 minutes and 11th place in overall. Also A.Kolembet/S.Kolembet with Toyota Land Cruiser 200 didn’t avoid snowy slopes as in a result they was forced to withdraw from competition. A.Terentyev/A.Berkut finished this race 11th in T1 class, 22nd in overall ranking.