The registration of participants for the traditional winter rally Sarma 2022, which will take place on February 12 in Gulbene region, has officially ended, and 94 crews have confirmed their participation !. There are many bright entries in the list. This shows that the fight for victory in the rally Sarma 2022 will be fierce and interesting.
Although only one WRC car has been registered (Mini John Cooper Works WRC), the number of powerful and fast cars is significant. The list already includes eleven Rally2 or R5 class cars, which is a new rally record for Sarma, with two more Proto and three Rally3 cars, as well as one Rally2-Kit class car.
Foto: Marleen Maask
A representative of the Mārtiņš Seska team told Go4speed Ieva Hmieļevska, ” At the moment we can’t provide more information about Mārtiņš Seska’s plans for the new season, because there are still several coordination cases in the process. However, we hope that closer to the end of February we will be able to officially announce where and with whom Mārtiņš will go. At the moment, in addition to the Sarma rally plan, there are tests and possibly other races where different all-wheel drive cars will be tested to figure out what to drive. But now it is clear that Mārtiņš is continuing the season with an all-wheel drive car. There are currently plans for a multi-year program, but at the moment, while everything is still in progress, we cannot talk about it officially yet. Until all agreements are concluded, we will officially inform about it. “
Photo: Matīss Spaile
It is now known that Sesks Rally Sarma will start with a Skoda Fabia R4, which in a more understandable language is Rally2-Kit class car. This another has been developed by a famous French company Oreca, which produces a set that includes the engine, transmission, main suspension components, brakes and semi – electronics. This kit can be purchased by anyone interested, where this kit must be placed in the body of the machine. Next, it all depends on the ability and skills of each team of engineers to put it all together so that in the end the car would be fast and competitive.
For the sake of clarity, the rally hierarchy behind the WRC Rally1 cars is currently as follows: WRC2, Rally2-Kit, Proto, Group A, Rally3 and N4.
Photo: Alfonsas Rakauskas Photography
According to known information of this Lithuanian Proracing Engineering The team car has been tested a lot by the five-time Finnish rally champion Theme Asunma. According to the reviews of both the Finnish driver and other drivers, the car is well assembled and well adjusted, so the foundation is very good. Also in terms of handling, driving with this Rally2-Kit is very good and very close to the R5, but of course in terms of power this car is a little weaker. In terms of power, the R5 is around 280 hp, while the Rally2-Kit is 263 hp. According to available information Rally2-Kit is about 0.8 – 1 second slower than R5.
It should be noted that, although it was originally planned that Rally3 and Rally2-Kit cars, in the end it turned out that this Rally2-Kit are slightly faster than Rally3, so the two cars in the WRC and ERC championships will not be put together in the same class.
About what Mārtiņš Sesks thinks about the new car, about how he did the tests in Lapland, about it soon!
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