25.02.2016

From 20 to 22 February in Karelia, Russia took place the first FIA World Cup and the Russian championship rallyraid "Northern Forest 2016". The event was won by ''RE Autoclub'' crew with pilot Tapio Lauronen, who in the overall rankings finished 5 seconds in front of the Latvian racer Maris Neiksans, who in turn took the first place in FIA World rally Cup ranking.

In the first day of the competition - in 20-km prologue Tapio Lauronen and Toni Lauronen from Finland (Mitsubishi L2) surprised all and threw a somersault, but it did not prevent to reach the finish first. They kept their lead till the end and won first place in overall rally "Northern Forest 2016", receiving an invitation for "Silk Way Rally 2016", which will take place from 8 to 24 July on the route Moscow-Beijing.

"I am pleased that our crew has shown the best performance and taken first place in overall ranking. A big surprise was receiving an invitation to "Silk Way Rally 2016". Tapio Lauronen is determined to use this opportunity. To successfully do that, "RE Autoclub" team has huge responsibilities in front - to improve car's technical condition, replacing the engine and increasing its capacity, as well as to take part in the Russian Championship stages of Astrakhan and Volgograd regions to properly test the improvements," says" RE Autoclub" director Robert Elbakjans.

The first three winners in overall:
Lauronen Tapio / Lauronen Toni (Mitsubishi) - 3:49:37
Neiksans Maris / Nikolayev Anton (Volkswagen) - 3:49:42 (+0: 00: 05)
Vladimir Vasilyev / Konstantin Zhilcov (Mini) - 3:50:55 (+0: 01: 18)

RE Autoclub crews 1st and 2nd place in T2 class

T2 class was won with an overwhelming manner by Alexander Terentyev and Alexey Berkut from Russia (Ford Raptor F150SVT), who kept lead in both day 1 and day 2. Also second place in convincing manner went to Alexander Terentyev Jr. and Alexey Beloborodovs from Russia (Toyota LC).
During the opening ceremony the Russian Federation of Motorsport also awarded the honorary medal "Master of Sports" to "RE Autoclub" pilot Alexander Terentyev for outstanding performance in 2016 in competition "Africa Eco Race". In that the race A.Terentjevs won honorable first place in the T2 class.

Toni Gardemeisteram and Krisjanis Caune speed record - 180km/h

Fastest Rally stage pilot from Finland Toni Gardemeisteram chose as a co-pilot Latvian racer Krisjanis Caune (Mitsubishi MPR 107). This crew indeed showed that it is very fast and can be in the top three - the first day of the competition 3rd place, second - 2nd place. In prologue crew was hit by technical problems with the transmission. "RE Autoklubs" mechanics successfully solved it, but still it resulted with 60 penalty minutes, which prevented the crew to climb to the podium and gaining 12th place overall.

"RE Autoclub" takes second place in team rankings

Crews showed excellent driving skills and Latvian motorsports team "RE Autoclub" ranked second place behind "GAZ reid sport '.

This time the "RE Autoclub" crew - last year the Russian championship 2nd place winners - Jouni Ampuju and Markku Hurskainen (Mitsubishi MPR 112) has technical failure in the first day of the competition, which made participation in the further stages of the competition impossible, although originally the crew was very fast, overtaking even Toni Gardemeister crew.

Rally "Northern Forest" is the only snow and ice-covered rally stage in the FIA World Cup stage of the series. It is the most impressive and most popular rally raid in Russia, where the 350 km long route includes the most beautiful and at the same time most cunning roads of St.Petersburg.

Video overview has also been published on “RE Autoclub” social networks:
www.facebook.com/reautoclub
www.twitter.com/REautoclub
www.instagram.com/reautoclub
www.youtube.com/REAutoclubTV