Kajetanowicz Kajetan has won the 2016 FIA European Rally Championship at Rally Liepaja today, his second consecutive title win. He now joins the likes of Luca Rossetti and Bernard Darniche – the only drivers to ever win a ERC title two years in a row. Kajetanowicz’s win also meant a second win in a row for Ford.
With one more round left in the season, Kajetanowicz fourth place complete today was sufficient to give him a fantasy that lone a couple of different drivers in ERC history have encountered. The Ford Fiesta R5 driver had an intense weekend staying aware of pace setters in front of him, particularly the 22-year old Ralfs Sirmacis in his Skoda Fabia R5. Sirmacis was the inevitable victor of the penultimate round in Latvia today, which additionally happens to be his nation of origin.
For Sirmacis, this was his third win of the season in just five begins, an epic minute for the youth who just began dashing in the top ERC classification this year, having moved on from the Junior Championship. Co-driven by Arturs imins, they won each and every phase with the exception of two road stages on Saturday evening. This was the first run through Rally Liepaja was held as an immaculate rock occasion.
Second place went to Lukyanuk Alexey who ditched his usual Ford Fiesta R5 for a Mitsubishi Evo X in this round. He managed to keep up with the R5 spec cars, staying in second throughout the three day rally. Siim Plangi gave Mitsubishi a double podium by finishing third. Kajetanowicz and Plangi fought hard for the podium spot but the Ford driver was slowed down by technical difficulties allowing Plangi to escape away.
Local driver Kisiels Raimonds finished fifth behind Kajetanowicz in a Skoda Fabia R5. Marijan Griebel was crowned the ERC Junior champion and will be rewarded by upgrading to a Skoda Fabia R5 at the Cyprus Rally next month by Motorsport Italia.
Elsewhere in ERC2, Chuchala Wojciech claimed the championship title in his Subaru Poland Rally Team car. He crashed out on the final stage but his five wins of the season were good enough to award him the title with one more round left to go.
Original published at "gtspirit" website.
