A Taste of the Fourth Championship

  Less than a week has passed since the last start - and the crew is back on the recce! This time Dmitry and Anna – are in the participants' list of the II-nd Round of Latvian Rally Championship - BTA Rally Talsi! Again there are for the first time in this country on the gravel event - before there was only the experience of snow sprint. And LRC is the fourth series in this year, which the crew decided to get acquainted with. 

   Rally Talsi is a very representative event again! There is about nine dosen "passenger" rally cars in the starting list (among them - 10 Russian crews) but this is not all! In addition to them, according to Latvian tradition – the participants of Latvian Cross-Country rallying championship would hit the ground (among which, by the way - some very persons, who are famous in Russia, too). Dmitry Tagirov's crew received 31 starting number that some have felt unfairly low. But, first - is still ahead of all other Russians, except Vasily Gryazin, who has Latvian license this year. And secondly - they do not have a "track list" in Latvian rallying. As for our athletes themselves – they care about their starting position the least. "Race to put everything in place, we do not pay to the starting position any attention at a moment, we'll see after regrouping!" - Anna Zavershinskaya commented the situation.

  The itinerary of the event is not typical for modern rallies, as the stages are almost never repeated. The opening Superspecial is the only stage to be repeated, and then - only SU9 and SU10 use the same roads partially. That makes the recce faily long.

  And rushed to the recce namely at the last moment! After the "Tallinn Rally" Dmitry has already managed to visit not home in Ekaterinburg ... The last two nights he was actually on the road, flew on a business tour ... to Kazakhstan! "There's still snow in the mountains, but the city is already blooming! But here even though rainy, but just an incredible number of storks - it seems they are now breeding - Dmitry has found time for lyrics - but I understand that after two nights of flights for me now is one of the most important factors in preparing for the rally – to have a good sleep tonight after reconnaissance! And such a rally itself is a great way to relieve the brain after the  business tour".

 Anna Zavershinskaya noted that the landscapes are changing a lot here: "There are forest roads, field sections, somewhere the road goes among the bushes ... Even the asphalt short connecting parts are very different! All this variety is very interesting! And because of wet weather in some places it will be very slippery."

  The crew sets the tasks of practicing as the main once again. They are planning to go with a pretty competitive speed, but not to take any risks. In PWRC and Russian Championship Dmitri and Anna are fighting for points and victories. In Estonian Championship they gain experience. Now it's time to "try" what the routes of Latvian Championship are, which is already the fourth series for them "to taste" this year.

   Dmitry Tagirov: "I evaluated how useful these conditions are, when you go at a competitive speed but not fighting on the limit. It's still a fun from sporting point of view, as we are not going to be slow, but that approach helps to make such a ride not destructive for the car. Different drivers approach their limits from alternative sides: some need to crash many times to feel this limit, other approach it "from below", step by step. Such events like we are doing these weeks help us to grow gradually, with a minimum risk. Yes, mistakes are still always possible, and we understood it a week ago in Estonia - well, that means the main thing - do not make mistakes! We are determining two limits. The "lower" one is how fast we have to be to remain competitive and the second, "upper" one is how fast we have to be to keep safe driving. So our strategy is to study the roads, step by step building up the speed"