Last weekend, two Samsonas-powered MV Sport cars made a trip to Paide, Estonia, where the Latvian, Estonian and Baltic championship event were held. One of the cars was driven by Estonian Egon Kaur, who Allan Birjukov supported as co-driver. It was Egon’s fifth start this year, but the first time in Estonia with an MV Sport-built Hyundai i20 VRT equipped with both a Samsonas Motorsport sequential gearbox and dampers.
Everything started well during the private test session before the rally, during which the cars were set up for the Estonian gravel stages. The rally itself started on Friday evening with 4 special stages, two of which were held on the roads of Paide. The battle for victory was between 4 Estonians and a Norwegian and Egon Kaur was only 6.7 seconds off first place, which was taken by Karl-Peder Nordstrand.
The second day offered 6 more special stages and the battle for first place continued with last year’s Samsonas Rally Utena winner Karl Peder Nordstrand and Egon Kaur. After 125 kilometers on very fast Paide roads and in mixed weather conditions, the MV Sport crew finished in second place, just 24 seconds away from victory.
More cars with MV Sport suspension and Samsonas gearboxes were at the start of the Paide Rally, with Janis Vorobjovs finishing on the podium in the LRČ5 class.
Egon Kaur shared his thoughts after the home event:
We started with tests on Wednesday and made some really good improvements by the end of it, a proper step forward, helping to get more consistent high level pace on stages. Rally went well and although we were unable to fully match our rival in a more powerful and lighter car, we still managed to catch two stage wins and some really close 0,x second places on stages, giving us a very strong second overall by the end of it. I would say MV Sport suspension together with Samsonas shock absorbers really clicked their package together now and there is still more to come in future.
Egon Kaur
Photos by Marleen Mask and Ray Põder
