Unsurprisingly the top three overall places at the end of Day 1 of the 2019 Lahti Historic Rally is filled by Finnish entries with the Category 4 no5 Audi Quattro A2 of Ville Silvasti leading by 26.4 seconds. The Category 3 no1 Volvo 242 of Jari Kankaanmaki is in second place, with the no4 Audi Quattro of Antero Laine in third.
Category 4 – Silvasti leads the Way
The no5 Audi Quattro was the leader in the Category 4 battle, 1m33.2s ahead of the no6 Toyota Celica of fellow Finn Jari Latvala. The no14 BMW M3 of Will Graham finished the day in 3rd, 2m32.8 seconds behind Silvesti’s Audi.
Category 3 – Zippo Heads the EHSRC Entry in Finland
With Kankaanmaki’s Volvo and Laine’s Audi heading the overall leader board and Category 3, it was the no2 Audi Quattro of ‘Zippo’ who finished the day as the leading Category 3 EHSRC entry. The Italian finished the day 49.5 seconds behind Kankaanmaki, with the no7 Toyota Starlet of Esa Peltonen in 5th and the second placed EHSRC car, 1m31.5s behind Kankaanmaki. Championship leader Pentti Veikkanen is 6th in class, but is only 0.4 seconds behind Peltonen at the end of Day 1.
Reigning champion Karl Wagner had a disappointing day the no10 Porsche suffering an alternator failure on SS3. The Austrian’s team are working on the car and it will be starting Day 2 tomorrow morning.
Category 2 – Johnsen Leading But Just Needs to Complete the Second Day
Once again the no13 Porsche Carrera RSR if Anders Johnsen is leading Category 2 at the end of the first day of a rally. After failing to complete the second day in Austria and Belgium, the Swedish driver will be hoping for third time lucky tomorrow. Championship leader Carlo Mylle is lying 4th in class, 4m15.8 seconds behind Johnsen but he is the second of the three EHSRC Category 2 entrants.
Category 1 – Graham Takes Control of Category 1
The top three places in the hotly contested Cat 1 class is filled by EHSRC entries with Britain’s Ernie Graham finishing the day with a commanding 2m39.8s lead in the no21 Ford Escort Twin Cam, with the no44 BMW 2002 Ti of Finland’s Elias Kivitila in second and the no40 Ford Consul Cortina Lotus of James Calvert in third.
Day 2 of the Lahti Historic Rally will feature another six gruelling gravel stages in the forests surrounding Lahti. The day begins at 9:01 when the first car takes the ceremonial start.
CLICK HERE for the results from Day 1 of the 2019 Lahti Historic Rally
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