THE STARS PREPARE FOR GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED
Northern European country eager to host a top-flight event, but not before 2022
Estonia is preparing to step out of Finland’s shadow with a ground-breaking plan for World Rally Championship inclusion.
Rally Estonia, which runs out of Tartu next week, has long been seen as little more than a loosener for Rally Finland across the Baltic Sea that follows a few weeks later. But event director Urmo Aava is preparing to launch a WRC bid which could raise safety standards on events higher than ever.
Rally Estonia aims to be more fanfocused than ever before in an effort to establish its WRC worthiness despite its close proximity to Finland.
“The WRC is in our plan,” Aava told Motorsport News. “Everybody tells us it’s impossible, we are dreaming, but we won’t give up. We have a three-year plan to grow our event, but we are doing this in a slightly different way.”
Estonia attracts the best entry of any rally in the world outside of the
WRC. Next week all four factory world championship teams will attend – with seven latest generation World
Rally Cars starting the event.
World championship leader Ott Tanak is among those taking part and he’ll be joined by his mentor and friend Markko Martin, winner of the original Rally Estonia back in 2010 (see sidebar).
“We have built roads in the past to help the teams testing for Finland,” said Aava. “But now we are making and preparing the roads for the future of the event and for the fans. Yes, we are still building the jumps and making the surface harder, to represent Finland, but what we want to do is provide the safest possible environment for the fans to watch.
“We are making the road with the specially designated spectating areas built in. In these places, the fans will be safe and they will be able to follow the cars for around one kilometre – but we absolutely won’t make it look like a rallycross track.
“With our new plan and our aim to make the WRC, we know we have to take care of every single spectator. Safety is, of course, the main thing, but we also have to make the place right for the fans – that means good parking, food, toilets, big video screens and good information, all of that sort of thing. That’s what we’re working on.”
Estonia enjoys the status of an official WRC promotion event, which essentially means they run as a candidate rally each season. Aava is adamant, however, the event won’t be in the world championship before 2022.
“We want all of the organisation to be ready when we come and we’re still learning,” he said. “If we come before 2022 then we will be average. We don’t want to be average.”
Government funding for a WRC round is in place, but has to be renewed each October. “We have very good support from the government,” said Aava. “The government understands what we are doing and reaching the WRC is in the [event’s] development plan.”