The Ukrainian Rally Championship began last weekend with the Chumatskyi Shlyah Rally, one of the few events held in Europe this weekend. The rallie had more than one hundred timed kilometers and a large list of entries.
The rallie had two interesting incentives. Valeriy Gorban, ultimately the winner of the race, was one of the participants aboard his Mini John Cooper Works WRC -Eurolamp WRT-Ascania Racing-. Gorban is an old acquaintance in the World Rally Championship for the last few seasons.
From 2013 to 2017, he was a regular in the WRC with the Mini, competing in the Rally of Catalunya on several occasions. He has chassis 34 in his possession since the aforementioned campaign, eight years ago. Therefore, after a good race, he added his first victory of the season.
The only competitor able to stand up to Gorban in the fight for victory was Igor Chapovskyi, with another similar machine. After a very close first stage between the two, Chapovskyi couldn`t start the next day, saying goodbye to any option.
Oleksandr Saliuk Junior, aboard a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, current Ukrainian Champion, qualified second with the Japanese car, but more than seven minutes from the first position. Oleksandr Kozlov, meanwhile, finished third, in this case with a Subaru Impreza N12.
