The fight in international classes on the Aleksandrov Rally Karpaty went in two different ways. From the one hand, we can’t talk about the intrigue in classes 2 and 8, where only two crews was entered. Clearly obvious that both of them, Vasiliy Gryazin and Volodymyr Kondratenko, needed only to get the finish to win the class automatically. But the battle in international class 5, just like on the previous Championship’s round in L’viv, was extremely interesting. 

Certainly, the Russian guest Dmitriy Myachin, who showed the highest class and skill, left the biggest impression on spectators and rivals. Driver from Kaliningrad appeared on Carpathian roads for the first time (and it was his first start with the new co-driver, Ukrainian Yuriy Kuzminov), but the results of the crew was extremely high. International crew won all Saturday stages in its class, left no chances for Ukrainian rivals.

But if the ‘gold’ of class 5 went to Russia, awards for the second and third places in Aleksandrov Rally Karpaty left in Ukraine. Three Dmitriys – Rotkevich, Radzivil and Tananevich – had been fighting for the two places on podium; and no one could predict the final of such battle in the middle of the rally. Three drivers divided the first Saturday leg in three parts: Rotkevich took the lead on the SS3, Radzivil was the fastest on the SS4 and Tananevich left the rivals behind on SS5.

The next section started in similar way: Rotkevich won the repeated SS ‘Sergii’, but legendary SS ‘Shurdyn’… Unfortunately, class 5 competitors couldn’t continue their fight on Shurdyn mountain pass. After the start of stage 7 one of the spectators needed an urgent medical help so Clerk of course had to make a decision to move the stage to road mode and efficiently evacuate the injured person to the hospital.

Nobody knows what would be the final of the class 5 fight, if the SS7 went in normal mode – but now it can be said only as a supposition. The fact is that Dmitriy Rotkevich confidently finished the rally on the second place in class. Dmitriy Radzivil competed the final three and Dmitriy Tananevich set the fourth result.