The Rally Liepāja is an international

rally racing Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally A pep rally or pep assembly is a gathering of people, typically students ...

event that travels northwards along the coastline of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

from

Liepāja Liepāja (; liv, Līepõ; see #Names and toponymy, other names) is a state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest-city in the Kurzeme Planning Region, Kurzeme Region and the third-largest city in the country after R ...

Ventspils Ventspils (; german: Windau, ; see other names) is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. The event is a round of the

European Rally Championship The European Rally Championship (officially FIA European Rally Championship) is an rallying, automobile rally competition held annually on the European continent and organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The champions ...

and the Latvian Rally Championship. The rally was run for the first time in 2013 as the first international auto racing event to be held in Latvia since gaining independence from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1991 and just the second motorsport event after the motorcycle Speedway Grand Prix of Latvia. Originally the rally was designed as a snow rally and unlike its neighbour in the ERC calendar, the

Jänner Rallye The Jänner Rallye, also known as the Internationale Jänner Rallye, is an international rally racing event based in Freistadt in northern Austria. The event is the season opening round of the European Rally Championship, the Austrian Rally Cham ...

, was not a tarmac based event but a traditional snow rally similar to events like

Rally Sweden The Rally Sweden ( sv, Svenska rallyt), formerly the International Swedish Rally, and later the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in February in Värmland, Sweden and relocated to Umeå in 2022. First held in 1950, ...

.The inaugural event was won by Finnish driver

Jari Ketomaa Jari Ketomaa (born 18 April 1979) is a Finnish former rally driver. Career A former kart racer, Ketomaa started rallying in 1995. He made his World Rally Championship debut in 2000 at Rally Finland. He won the Group N class of the Finnish Ra ...

driving a

Ford Fiesta RRC The Ford Fiesta RS WRC is the World Rally Car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford Europe and M-Sport for use in the World Rally Championship 2011–2016. It is based upon the Ford Fiesta road car, and replaced the Ford Focus RS WRC, which ...

in a one-off appearance for the British Autotek Motorsport team in the European Rally Championship. In 2016 the rally was moved to a September date, becoming a gravel rally, before settling into October in 2017.

Winners

Sourced from:

References

External links

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European Rally Championship
Rally competitions in Latvia Liepaja {{rally-stub Motorsport in Latvia