One of the Ukraine’s most famous rallying partnerships will be reunited on next week’s Prime Yalta Rally when Alexander Saliuk Sr and Evgen Chervonenko get back into a rally car for the biggest moment in their nation’s rallying history.
And they’ll be doing it in a PROTON Satria Neo S2000, as team-mates to two of the sport’s biggest stars, P-G Andersson (Sweden) and Giandomenico Basso (Italy).
Saliuk Sr and Chervonenko won the USSR Rally Championship 20 years ago and were recognised as being among the region’s fastest drivers in their era. Since that historic rally title, the pair have stopped competing regularly; Saliuk’s son Alexander Saliuk Jr is rising through the ranks and his father has stepped aside to focus on his son’s development as a driver. Saliuk Jr cannot compete on next week’s Intercontinental Rally Challenge round after he suffered a broken arm.
Chervonenko has been a driving force behind the Prime Yalta Rally’s recognition by Eurosport Events, the firm which runs the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. And next week, Chervonenko will co-drive in a factory car on the legend he helped create.
Speaking at a specially convened press conference in Yalta earlier this week, Saliuk Sr said: “The original plan was for my son to drive the PROTON, but since his injury I have stepped in to take his place behind the wheel. It means a great deal to me and to Evgen to compete together 20 years after we won the title in the USSR. This is a very important rally in the Ukraine and one which will attract the IRC’s fastest drivers to our beautiful part of the world. Evgen and I are very excited about competing with these drivers and teams in front of the home crowd.”
The Prime Yalta Rally runs on the asphalt roads in the foothills of the Ai-Petri Mountain, inland from the beautiful Crimean peninsula. The event begins with an opening ceremony at Yalta’s waterfront on Thursday June 2. The rally, round four of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, gets underway with six stages the next day, before finishing after a further six stages on Saturday June 4.
PROTON Motorsports will be running three factory-specification Satria Neo S2000s for Andersson, Basso and Saliuk Sr.-rallybuzz.com
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