This season, the Yalta stage became the final one in the Ukrainian Championship calendar, and it is on this track that drivers fight not only for prize places in their categories and the title of national champion, but also for leadership in the overall standings, as well as in the team championship. Throughout all three days, numerous motorsport fans will follow the most thrilling and, at the same time, the most grueling competition in Ukraine, where success will come only to the fastest and most enduring.
The official opening ceremony took place on the Yalta embankment, where each crew was officially presented and drove along the podium. The evening ended with a performance by Olga Gorbacheva and the group R.I.O. On the first competitive day, drivers had to overcome six fast special stages, including the ascent and descent from Ai-Petri. Difficulties began already in the first kilometers of the route: many crews encountered technical failures and were forced to retire from the race. The dangerous mountain serpentines also played their role — due to accidents, Tamrazov and German on the Ford Fiesta Super 2000 (the only such car in Ukraine), the famous circuit racing driver Kondratenko together with Daineko, as well as the crews of Matyagin and Faroshchuk, left the race.
Leadership in the overall standings passed from one crew to another after each special stage. An unsuccessful wheel change for Valery Gorban and a failed clutch on Alexander Salyuk's car only increased Yuri Shapovalov's chances of success. Holding the first position was not easy, because Dmitry Zorin from the Iva Rally team, Anton Kuzmenko, Igor Chapovsky, and Vladimir Petrenko were closely behind. However, Shapovalov's car breakdown on the final special stage finally determined the balance of power at the end of the first day.
The top three at the end of the day were Zorin and Mukhina from Russia, Kuzmenko and Halfon representing Ukraine and Turkey, as well as the Ukrainian crew of Chapovsky and Nikolaev. There is a possibility that Prime Yalta Rally 2010 may break the long-standing tradition of Ukrainian drivers winning the overall standings, yielding leadership to our foreign rivals...
However, there is still a whole day of competition ahead, and it will be decisive!
