“What do you do for the rally?” Part 2: Technical support team
Cast of characters:
Aivis Egle – engineering director of “Prospeed” technical support team
Martins Druvaskalns – manager of technical support team
Ineta Egle – administrator of technical support team, logistics expert
…. and many mechanics
Aivis Egle, the “Prospeed” team engineering director, plans the rally preparation for the team of technicians that service the racing car. The technical support team manager and the team administrator make another part of the work together. Ineta Egle – the person who makes everything planned possible – she books hotels where they are needed; buys the airplane tickets that are required for the team; makes sure there is always a stock of clothes with team livery for the crew and the team in the truck. Most of Ineta’s work on preparing any rally goes “behind the scenes”.
Mechanics work together, but everyone is responsible for their sector and type of work
Aivis Egle, engineering director of “Prospeed” technical support team, “My task is to make everything excellent at the rally. Starting from the car construction from scratch, ending with the driver’s comfort during the race. It is important for them and the mechanics that the team has a convenient, practical and nice service vehicle – a truck from which the service tent is pitched; all the spare parts are stored there and a sports car is also transported in it. It is necessary to make the racing Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X quick and crash-proof, and also to ensure that it meets the technical requirements of the series, where the racers take part. My ideas and directions are realized by mechanics. The car is prepared separately to each rally – for example, for the Canaries the specification of shock absorbers and suspension will be changed, because the tracks and the terrain where the races take place are very different from round to round. Moreover, this year everything is much easier for our team because we gained a lot of experience last season. We begin to prepare such distant trips as the Canaries for two or three months before the rally start. Martins and Ineta are engaged in it. I check my own team and get feedback from the racers about how it went”.
The technical support team manager is responsible for many small issues, of which a single entity is formed. The job is basically to keep track of all the information about the rally, and the changes that take place. He is responsible for all papers relating to the technical support truck movement and allowing it to arrive at the venue of the rally on time. If the team needs sports tyres in the country of the rally, this question is addressed to Martins. He also needs to find a car repair shop or car service in the city of the rally in case the team will have to do special work with the car for which it needs stationary equipment and premises. It is also important not to forget to order spare parts in the right “point on the map”, because repairs are made not only at the team base in Latvia.
The white board on which the logistics for the nearest rally is planed
Martins Druvaskalns, “Prospeed” technical support team manager, “Our work in the new season began at the end of 2017, when the calendar was announced. Ineta immediately booked several hotels in the cities where the rallies will take place, to be sure that we will live in the closest hotels to the service park of each race. It is important that the mechanics and crew don’t spend extra time getting to the accommodation. If to speak about the next rally in the Canary Islands – the work began on Azores, as I needed to find the contacts of the tyre supplier for the Rally Islas Canarias. And right after returning from the Azores we took a white board and started planning our logistics for the next Rally Islas Canarias: flights, check the reservation and specify the dates for the hotel, make up our schedule and route of travel (someone should drive the truck to the ferry, and someone can fly right to Las Palmas) – all these issues that are not visible to the fans and sometimes are not even obvious to the crew. This is a large amount of work and efforts that must be done to ensure the rally is held”.
Inside the technical truck there are always spare parts, hand tools and a machine for flanging tires
Here is a short list of works that should have been done right after returning from Azores Airlines Rallye:
- Planning and understanding of team flights, who and when flies to the next rally.
- Organization of all paperwork for truck delivery to the Canary Islands – this is the booking of ferry services.
- Ordering and replenishment of spare parts for Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X that the team used on the Azores during repairs in the rally service park.
- It was necessary to prepare the car for the next rally – it included the major repair of damaged parts and the rebuilding of car parts with a change of specification from gravel to asphalt (suspension, shock absorbers, brakes and other components).
- Car rental for the team of technician’s movement, and for the crew recce.
… Replenish the stock of co-driver’s pacenotebooks; buy refill leads for an automatic pencil; remember that Mark took a set of team clothes with him again…
A week ago, the schedule of cargo and passenger ships changed: arrival to the Canaries will take place a day later than planned, so it was necessary to change the dates of accommodation in hotels and shift the departure date of the service vehicle from Latvia.
Photo, when they all do not stick out different parts of the body from the sports car
Some of the communications are on the phone, since the team is in Latvia, and Oleg, Sergey and Mark are in Russia. These negotiations are necessary for the organization of all needs. There are many small details that need to be met in order for the rally to take place, but they cannot be separated in any one category. This is a bunch of minor related issues, but if something goes wrong, it will affect the future of Rally Islas Canarias.
Previous part of the trilogy you can read here
The first half of the final day was fruitful for Alexey Lukyanuk, although it was not easy to hold the lead: a leakage occurred in one brake caliper, and the crew’s Ford Fiesta R5 quickly lost brake fluid. So guys had to block the brake line by means turned out to be at hand and continue driving, braking only with three wheels.
Alexey Lukyanuk, driver “The last section is the most difficult, because you need to finish it and follow the race to its logical end. And it’s sometimes harder than creating a gap, it’s not always easy to hold it. We drove very carefully through the final section, saved the brakes, the tyres and the car. I suppressed my emotions for so long and waited for this victory even longer that I was a little crazy and tried to make some “doughnuts” at the finish of the special stage. But I was not very successful, they were probably the ugliest “doughnuts” in my life. But my emotions actually ran high, I realized that we not only reached the finish line – we won the race! And this is the most important thing! I’m very-very happy! Thanks to the H-Racing team for the car, to all our present and future partners for their faith and support, a special thanks to my co-driver, the media for their attention and help, and to all the fans!!!”
The second section started for the crew in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution with a confident attack and attempts to win back the necessary seconds. But like the last year, the final special stage of the rally was decisive for the crew. At SS15 the car at full speed hit a wheel against a rock in the same place as Alexey Lukyanuk’s car last year. The steering wheel got crooked, the wheels were turned in different directions, so Remennik was afraid that he would eventually lose the wheel, failing to reach the finish of the special stage. But the rally ended on a high note, because the crew was able to achieve the goal – to finish on the Azores, not surprising the fans with their “achievements”. The leadership on the first rally day brought seven bonus points to the crew collection, in addition to the points that it will receive for the finish in the second position in the category.
Sergei Remennik, driver, “Unfortunately, we could not keep the first place. The broken wheel at the beginning of the day significantly shortened the gap between us and Alonso. Then we got stuck, that is, hit the rock and got stuck in a very narrow place. We tried to relieve the car for a long time and lost all our advantage. And in addition to it – the cherry on the cake, so to say, was that we hit the last year’s rock named after Lucas, and turned the wheel in the same way, but the Evo may have been slightly stronger, or the speed was slightly lower, anyway the car reached the finish line. We secured the runner-up position, we will receive points for the second place by the day results, for the second place according to the race results and extra points for the first place according to the first days results. In general, we are very pleased that we were able to finish such an incredibly complex and beautiful race. Thank you for watching us!”
Now there is a little more than a month break in the FIA European Rally Championships – the second round, Rally Islas Canarias, will be held from 3 to 5 May on the islands in the middle of the Atlantic again.
The official website of the rally 
The chosen traditional winter rally “Sarma 2018” will be held on 10 February in the Gulbene region – it is the second round of the Latvian and Estonian championships. Detailed information about the rally and on-line timing are available at 
Mark Rozin, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, ERC2, co-driver, “The FIA European Rally Championship turned out to be a huge adventure for us. Little nuances had a big impact on the sporting process although, for example, what’s the difference where to eat? You can organize a lunch in the service area (then someone from the team prepares it that distracts the person from the car maintenance process) or go to the city, but then you need to take the whole team of mechanics there. If to speak about recce logistics, it was a great success to do it on time!
Sergei Remennik, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, ERC2, driver, “The season was not as we’ve planned – we wanted to show a better result. It was too venturesome idea – to try to win the Championship from the first time! But there were such thoughts by the middle of the second racing day at the Azores (our first event in this series). There, from the very first kilometers of the distance we demonstrated our speed, having 42 seconds gap from our classmates – it was very easy. But at the race penultimate stage we just caught the earthwork parapet in reverse, tightly hanging on it… Based on the last season, we can definitely write a book with the title “What the FIA European Rally Championship first-timers should not do” if we collect all our mistakes. The biggest irony is that at the beginning of the year we made the main bet on the gravel stages, but were able to get all scoring points at the asphalt rallies, where our experience was minimal. We got the first “gravel” points for the last stage – Rally Liepāja.
Alexey Lukyanuk, Ford Fiesta R5, overall ERC standings, “The season was not very successful, but there were good moments in it as we are staying in the European Rally Championship. The pros of the season are people believe in us, and we have new partners we are very thankful to. Fortunately, these are wise and generous people who see that our mistakes are not crazy riding and lack of responsibility, but rather a combination of circumstances. RPM, Qiwi, Pirelli, Hortex, Coolstream, H-Racing and many others, to whom we are immensely grateful, are still with us. It is clear that the human factor was, is and will be, but, nevertheless, this year the most unexpected things happened to us. I can’t say we are driving beyond the bounds, always risk, and fail because of it. No, there is a margin. We will pay even more attention to psychology, vigilance, concentration of attention at this level. Next year we will get back to the fight and drive the season in the FIA European Rally Championship. It is necessary to do much: find the budget, work with the team, and whip ourselves into shape. These positive moments motivate me, and we are waiting for a new season!”
On the second rally day the team was represented only by the crew of Sergei Remennik and Mark Rozin, who took the tenth place in the overall standings and continued the struggle for the ERC-2 podium. There was a whole series of unpleasant events, it started with the accident of Janis Vorobjovs (the race leader in the ERC-2 classification), who went off the track at the first morning special stage… Soon after Remennik faced some troubles and had to change the punctured wheel at SS-10. The problem seemed not to be crucial while driving on the track, but after the jump the car behavior caused fear. The crew stopped for the wheel replacement and lost almost four minutes – it immediately threw guys from the second to the fourth place in their category.
But the ugliest situation has developed at SS-11, near the helicopter crash site. The organizers immediately stopped the race so as not to interfere with the rescue services that went to the disaster scene. However, the Internet immediately began to spread completely wrong information about the incident – some online media even published the news that “the race was stopped because of a serious crash of the Russian driver Sergei Remennik”, although there was not the slightest mention of any incident with our crew participation. There were only two current reports – “Remennik stopped” and “Reinis Nitiss was stopped by the red flags”. And that was all, no more details! But it was enough to immediately launch the so-called “news” about the “serious accident”… In fact the crew received a signal from the judicial rally services through the GPS device that the special stage was stopped, and started to drive in a road mode in accordance with the Regulations, not trying to show the best time.
Sergei Remennik, “The season was not as we’ve planned – we wanted to show a better result. Of course if to compare us with the regular category members, then in Liepaja we drove faster, but our merit is that we are more qualified for gravel races. The biggest irony is that at the beginning of the year we made the main bet on the gravel stages, but were able to get all scoring points at the asphalt rallies, where our experience was minimal. We got the first “gravel” points for the last stage – Rally Liepāja.
Now we can summarize the FIA European Rally Championship results in some categories. Pole Kajetan Kajetanowicz (145 points) became the overall Champion third time in a row; Alexey Lukyanuk with Alexey Arnautov scored 73 points (victory in Spain, second place in the Czech Republic) and finished the season fourth in the overall standings; Sergey Remennik and Mark Rozin secured the third place in ERC-2 (114 points, four podiums), and Hungarian Tibor Erdi became the Champion in this category.