The idea to organize a new rally was born over 11 years ago when
Silver Kütt, a co-driver with the experience of participating in
seven WRC rallies, presented his idea to his good friend, a
former WRC driver Urmo Aava. After sharing the idea with a “marketing
mastermind” Tarmo Hõbe, who named the new rally “Rally Estonia”, first
steps were taken.
The idea that first seemed unbelievable back in 2009, has grown year
by year and now Rally Estonia has become a WRC event. The first Rally
Estonia took place in 2010 and the first ever winner of the rally was a
local hero Markko Märtin who has won five World Championship rallies
back in his WRC career. The first two-time champion of the event was
Mads Østberg, the winner of Portugal WRC rally 2012, who was fastest at
Rally Estonia in the years 2011 and 2012.
The high competitive level with the help and contribution of Märtin,
Østberg and Latvala family raised the bar high for the organizers to
keep. From 2014 until 2016 Rally Estonia was part of the European Rally
Championship (ERC) and in 2014 it was voted as the best ERC rally of the
year.
Besides local stars Rally Estonia has welcomed many world top rally
drivers over the years, such as WRC drivers Thierry Neuville, Esapekka
Lappi, Jari-Matti Latvala, Teemu Suninen, Craig Breen, Hayden Paddon,
Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Martin Prokop, Toni Gardemeister and ERC Champions
Alexey Lukyanuk and Kajetan Kajetanowicz and the rising young gun Oliver
Solberg who R5 class won last year.
From 2018 to 2020, the race was dominated by our local heroes and
2019 World Rally Champions Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja, but in 2021
Kalle Rovanperä won the historic victory, winning the rally as the
youngest competitor in the WRC history.
