A constantly evolving test

After stopping his racing career, which culminated at the Acropolis 2008 (4th), Urmo Aava devoted himself to organizing the rally from Estonia. Initially, this took the form of a promotion event with the approval of the promoter of the WRC.

At that time, the start ceremony took place in the center of Tartu and a superspecial was also planned in town. Last year's rise to the World Cup was accompanied by new facilities. The podium is now located on the site of the Estonian Museum where there is no shortage of space to deploy the service park.

It's more practical and looks more serious than the certainly rural, but limited, surroundings of the Otepää athletics stadium. The route has also evolved. If previously all the ES were located south of Tartu, this year times appeared north of the country's 2nd city.

Among the organizers, there is a strong desire to keep the rally as compact as possible. It is for this reason that it is not studied to go much further south than currently. In order not to become just another event during the summer, there are no plans to move the departure ceremony to the capital Tallinn or to plan a special there.

As this round gains notoriety, the organizers receive requests for the rally to go to this or that part of the Tartu region because there is a lot of work being done on the paths before and after the week -end!

For Aava and his team, setting up the event represented a huge task to convince landowners to lend their fields to install the 62 spectator areas that had been defined. The 550 commissioners then ensured the smooth running of the race which had notably required 33 km of safety banners, 55 km of markings and more than 15 stakes!

Their improvement has been constant since 2018 and it will have to continue since the comments from drivers regarding the new Power Stage drawn around the service park are very negative. It would not be surprising if next year this last section of the rally was located elsewhere.