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Remembering when… Sensational Sirmacis became an ERC winner in Greece

Young Latvian Ralfs Sirmacis secured an incredible win on the legendary SEAJETS Acropolis Rally (6-8 May 2016) on his first start at the top level of the FIA European Rally Championship.

Young Latvian Ralfs Sirmacis secured an incredible win on the legendary SEAJETS Acropolis Rally (6-8 May 2016) on his first start at the top level of the FIA European Rally Championship.

The 21-year-old was competing on his first rally in an R5-specification car after stepping up from the ERC Junior Championship, where he was runner-up in 2015. He won the first stage in his Sports Racing Technologies-run, ŠKODA Baltic-backed Fabia R5 on MICHELIN tyres and led at the end of every test, headed only overnight when Alexey Lukyanuk had a penalty for a jump start rescinded on Saturday evening.

Two seconds separated Lukyanuk and Sirmacis at the start of day two and a puncture for the Russian on SS7 handed the advantage back to the newcomer. Worse was to come for Lukyanuk, who lost 17 minutes on the mammoth 33.86-kilometre SS9 fixing a broken suspension arm on his Ford Fiesta R5.

Sirmacis kept his cool to stretch his margin to 2m10.3s and clinch a special victory for himself and co-driver Arturs Šimins, who was also celebrating turning 26. Greek hero Lambros Athanassoulas turned a 19.5s deficit to Jaromír Tarabus into a 35-second advantage and inherited second when Lukyanuk hit trouble. However, he got caught behind a slower car on the very last stage and was in tears at the finish, fearing his dream result had slipped away. In the end, he held on to second over Tarabus by just one tenth of a second in an incredible climax. Athanassoulas therefore went one better than he managed on the 2015 event, as did Tarabus, who scored his first ERC podium since 2013. Athanassoulas was later given back 32s after being unfairly obstructed.

Raul Jeets, team-mate to Sirmacis at SRT, scored his best ever ERC finish in fourth after a consistent rally and completed a lock-out of the top four places for the ŠKODA Fabia R5 on an event that lived up to its reputation as a car breaker.

Jarosław Kołtun was sixth with Tomasz Kasperczyk seventh and Kajetan Kajetanowicz eighth. The defending ERC champion lost 15 minutes when he rolled on the very first stage of the rally, but won eight stages. He eventually outscored rival Lukyanuk by three points, with the Russian ending up 20 minutes in arrears after a further turbo problem on the penultimate stage, but P10 overall.

Zdroj: fiaerc.com