24 year old Swedish driver Patrik Flodin became the first foreign driver to clinch the Russian Open Rally championship, after winning all the first four rounds of the six event series, at the wheel of a Subaru Impreza N14 run by the Uspensky team. This came only six days after Flodin was the top finishing orthodox Group N competitor on Neste Oil Rally Finland. The event was the South Urals Rally held at the iron ore mining town of Bakal on the western slopes of the Ural mountain range. Conditions were wet after earlier rains, and Flodin finished nearly four minutes ahead of his nearest rival, Andrey Zhigunov. The reigning champion Alexander Zhedulov was fourth overall.
“The stages are really nice, very similar in that respect to Finland, but it is very difficult for us as foreigners because nobody seems to speak any English. Most of the information is only in Russian. You must have a Russian person to help you! The passion for rallying is quite similar to Sweden, though I had expected there would be more people on the stages. Normally the organisation seems to work quite well. The rallies are held in cities which are
quite easy to reach by air but the roads are not always smooth” said the recently crowned champion.

3mmm