Rallycross: Roberts Vītols’ intrigue – the end of rallycross? (PHOTO)

Last week, we reported on Latvian rallycross champion Roberts Vītols’ bronze medal in the British Junior Championship, as well as last weekend’s tests and races on the Nogaro circuit in France. Does flirting with the highway mean a point for rallycross?

This year, Vītols, without the British success, achieved the championship title in the Latvian rallycross Super 1600 class. Sufficiently optimal results to be able to say how a career cycle would have ended again, the high-quality level is confirmed by titles. In addition, the news about Nogaro’s highway activities made me think – a change of discipline? Robert’s father and manager, Uģis Vītols, was open about his future plans before the French tests: “Actually, there are no intrigues about our plans; everything is much simpler. Our activities abroad are aimed at getting Robert noticed as a driver and as a talent. I see that the driver has potential, so we want him to be known, so that offers from teams or specialists start coming in. This year, something is starting to appear; offers are starting to come in. And if these offers are in line with our financial capabilities and interesting for our team and driver, we will go to all corners of the world to participate. The offers we have received are financially “understandable” and, interestingly, compared to some opportunities in the Baltic and Scandinavian markets, even better, more adequate, at a lower price and with better conditions. Accordingly, I hope that offers will come more and more. Will we go to the highway? I don’t know! We are currently enjoying what we can get, which is a pleasure to participate in. There was an offer to compete on the highway in France – why not?! We evaluated it – let’s go! In Great Britain, a conversation with Pat Doran, who is an authority on rallycross, remained half-spoken. If there is an offer, we will evaluate it. Let’s go! Let’s look wider… No matter how much we don’t want to admit it, Latvia is small, no matter how hard both the bullfighters who go to the track and the organizers try. When we get to foreign pits, we always gain unprecedented experience about how the car and the driver get to the start, how and what conversations need to be held with the team management and mechanics. We have to get used to many good words that are said to us, for example, by the judges, as it was in Great Britain… It’s a huge school, which, as I’ve been emphasizing all season, is currently very important for our team and Robert. Plus the fact that we haven’t failed in sports, quite the opposite – we can get into a foreign car, on a foreign track, and achieve success. In short, we don’t have a specific plan at the moment. Let’s watch the situation! If we talk about financing, to be honest, I don’t believe in such a phenomenon as sponsors; I rely on our own strength. But anything can happen!”

After the finish of the British Championship, Roberts Vītols listened with pride to the story of his British team mechanic, who was spared until the end of the season: “In the last race, there was a mechanic working in the team in person, who basically only works at Peter Gwynn’s team base, preparing the cars. I was already going to the last start when he caught up with me, shook my hand, wished me luck, and asked if I would like to hear a real story. Of course, I agreed. The story was about team boss Peter Gwynn, who is usually very serious and reserved, and does not show any unnecessary emotions. We had just had the very first race at Leadenhill last autumn. Peter arrived at the team base the next day and exclaimed in excitement: “Bloody hell! “We had a guy in our car yesterday who wasn’t sitting on the right side of the wheel, hadn’t competed in Leadenhill, but won two races and set a lap record for this class. How is that possible!?”

The last race, a week ago at the Croft track, ended in a particularly emotional way. After a very difficult battle on Saturday, victory on the last stage on Sunday followed. While the news from the team mainly came in glorious descriptions of the battle, the audio message after the Sunday finish consisted more of sobs from Robert’s parents, in between which it was clear that everything had ended brilliantly. Vītols had achieved victory, holding on to second position for a long time, but a few laps before the finish, he jumped into the inside of the corner with a cunning maneuver and overtook O`Donovan. Roberts also met the same experienced mechanic after the finish, who had a new story about team boss Gwynn: “After the finish, the same mechanic told us the story again… When I managed to overtake, the British team and Peter himself were standing on that corner. At the moment when I was next to the leader and overtook him, the whole team jumped on the fence at the side of the track in excitement, and Peter climbed four or five large steps above the ground and shouted at the top of his lungs. It seems incredible how much I managed to get to know him this year. And it is very honorable, if for once I have managed to open up this reserved person so much. It may be a small detail, but it is so important to me.”

The TCR car was successfully tested in the weekend’s road racing. Three races in the Peugeot 208 Cup were held with difficult battles, where everything was experienced – both a crash and retirement caused by a competitor on a wet track, and a perfect start, and overtaking, and hard battles. On Sunday, a six-hour endurance race was held with the Peugeot 208, where Vītols was one of three drivers in the team. By the way, the team’s most experienced pilot was the Frenchman Eric Elari, who even has an absolute victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours race on his account; he was once close to making his F1 debut. It was the long race on the wet track that Vītols proved himself most brilliantly. In his races, he demonstrated the stability of lap times, and the fastest lap was even better than Elari’s, which is a small personal victory for the Latvian. Roberts has already received recognition again, and invitations to compete in next year’s competition are also coming. Uģis Vītols comments on the Tour de France as another opportunity used: “It was again a huge school and experience. It was again a way to introduce yourself and popularize your name in the motorsports community. It was again proof that the driver is fast and can adapt to situations very quickly. So we have another reason to wait and evaluate potential offers… We have to take advantage of the opportunities!”