This weekend, on October 12-14, Liepāja and its nearby region will host the Speed Festival “Kurzeme”, which will begin with its main event – FIA European Rally Championship round “Rally Liepāja” – having a drivers’ parade on city streets on Friday afternoon.
©RA Events - Ronalds Sirba
“Considering the roadworks taking place in the city centre, the festival will be a bit different this year and all rally related events will be located in Jaunliepāja. Service park will be in the Annas market square, while the event opening ceremony will take place at the Liepājas Olimpiskais Centrs Manēža,” says Speed Festival “Kurzeme” organizer Uldis Hmieļevskis. “For the first time, we will have a drivers’ parade, where everyone will be able to see the rally cars and, at the same time, the competitors will have a small trip through our city.”
©RA Events - Ronalds Sirba
The parade will begin at 18:30 on Friday, October 12. We suggest waiting for the crews at the “Great Amber” concert hall, where they will pass by twice – first, at around 18:35, when turning from Jūras street to the Vecā Ostmala promenade (best viewing point – “bridge” to the promenade) and then at around 18:45, when they do a full circle around the roundabout in front of the concert hall.
©RA Events - Ronalds Sirba
At 19:00, the crews will return to LOC manēža for the the “Rally Liepāja” opening ceremony.
Rally will begin at 10:00 on Saturday, October 13, with stages in Aizpute and Kuldīga regions, while fans in Liepāja will be able to enjoy the final round of the Latvian water motorsports speedboat championship, “UPB Energy” Cup, starting from 12:00. The Liepāja track, located on the Tirdzniecības canal, brings the spectators closest to the action and makes it possible to witness the skills necessary to drive a speedboat on the canal waters.
Back on land, in front of “Royal Hotel”, the “Youngtimer Cars & Coffee” event will take place, with this serving as one of the key events for owners of cars made in the period from the 1960s to 1980s, giving you a chance to see how they have restored and refreshed cars that are not necessarily old, but are not something you see on the streets every day.
On Sunday, the rally cars will be closer to Liepāja – in the Aizpute, Vaiņode, Priekule and Durbe regions, with Historic regularity rally crews tackling the stages (SS7, SS8, SS10, SS11) one-and-a-half hours before the rally cars. Meanwhile, on stages SS9-SS12, we will see the Historic Sport class cars mixing in with the Latvian Rally Championship competitors.
PROVISIONAL ROUTE
