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Latvia win the perfect SEAJETS Acropolis warm-up for ERC Junior Gryazin

Nikolay Gryazin revved up for next week's SEAJETS Acropolis Rally by beating Kalle Rovanperä on Rally Talsi in Latvia last weekend - by 0.74 seconds.

Gryazin, a frontrunner in the FIA ERC Junior Under 28 Championship, was contesting the popular gravel event in his usual Sports Racing Technologies ŠKODA Fabia R5 and fought back from a 10-second time penalty to defeat his fellow young talent and Fabia driver for his major event win.

"This turned out to be a very fun rally where we drove as fast as we could, if not even faster," said Gryazin. "In a way, I can say thanks for the penalty - it gave me some additional motivation to push even harder - and I hope that the spectators also enjoyed it, as we did not lift when going over jumps! I am thrilled to finally earn a victory."

Ralfs Sirmacis was also competing and finished third overall in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, an affordable alternative to the Fabia the cash-strapped Latvian campaigns in the European Rally Championship.

Although the SEAJETS Acropolis Rally is not part of this year's ERC Junior schedule,

Gryazin will be competing in Greece from 2-4 June as he builds his experience of international events and his overall ERC points total. Sirmacis won the iconic gravel event for the Latvian SRT team in 2016 but does not have the funds to defend his title.

Zdroj: fiaerc.com