Races in the most picturesque places of the Crimean peninsula on the most difficult mountain serpentines of the famous Ai-Petri mountain, located near the resort town of Yalta have been held since the Soviet times. Once the stages of the USSR Rally Championship were held here, and the Crimean race was rightfully considered to be one of the most difficult not only in the Union, but also in the whole world.
After the collapse of the USSR Yalta rally was held several times under the name «Antika» (this was the name given to the race by Aksyonov in his work), but soon ceased to exist, until in 2005 the competition was revived again by the efforts of the famous Ukrainian driver Evgeny Chervonenko. The best sports and advertising forces were involved in organizing the race,
the organizers showed such a level of the event that the race was awarded the status of the European Cup stage without a two-year probation period. In 2006 in Ukraine for the first time the European Cup stage on rally was held, and this event became a sensation of automobile sport in Ukraine. It was at that time that the FIA representatives paid attention to the Yalta track as a potential venue for competitions of even higher status. However, the organizers had to show the level for several years in a row. So in 2007 the race increased the coefficient of prestige on the FIA scale, Crimea received more and more fans of motor sports from around the world and enthusiastic reviews not only from spectators, but also from officials who came to Crimea as observers from the International Automobile Federation. More and more crews from different European countries took part in the competition.
In 2008 Prime Yalta Rally became the best sporting event of the year and was seriously talked about as a contender for the stages of the increasingly popular IRC series. In 2009, Yalta was visited by a record number of tourists, making the velvet season in Yalta, an additional season in Crimea — the season of Prime Yalta Rally. Prime Yalta Rally 2010 was close to the calendar <>Intercontinental Rally Challenge as never before, but before the introduction of this rally into the calendar, in fact the World Cup Rally, was still a year away. The Crimean rally was among the candidates for the IRC stage after the inspection of the series organizers headed by the former Peugeot sports director Jean-Pierre Nicolas in November 2010. And now the long-awaited news about assigning Prime Yalta Rally a stage of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge series was broadcasted by all European media in December 2010.
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How long everyone has been waiting for this — Prime Yalta Rally 2011 IV stage of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge series.
In 2011, Yalta Rally confirms its status as a «locomotive» of Ukrainian rally, having received coefficient 10 for the European Cup of the Eastern Zone and having secured its place in the IRC Calendar 2012. The rally was visited by the leading drivers of the series, revealing world-class drivers for Crimea and Ukraine.
The Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) is a racing series that was born in 2006, and thanks to the support of Eurosport channel, has already become the most popular among spectators and participants around the world.
There are currently eight automobile concerns represented in the IRC. These are Abarth, Honda, M-Sport, Peugeot, Proton, Ralliart, Skoda and Subaru.
Athletes fight for victory in the overall standings, prizes at the end of the stage are awarded to the three best pilots, three best navigators and the strongest team.
Stages of the series are held under the rules of the FIA World Championship, and points at the finish line can be obtained by all crews competing on cars of officially registered manufacturers. IRC is fully regulated by the FIA Code.
The traditional «Rally of 10,000 turns» in Corsica, the classic race in San Remo, the historic stage in Scotland and the highlight of the program — the iconic Rally Monte Carlo — all these stages are on the schedule of the «alternative world championship» year after year. Difficult asphalt Rally of the Canary Islands, the so-called «long-distance» race in Argentina and the most difficult asphalt route of mountain serpentines in Yalta. Yes, the IRC series of races is not taken just like that, for this applicant for the status must at least have something very special, which is sure to attract the attention of the organizers of the «alternative world championship». Crimea has absolutely everything — territorial location, nature, climate, infrastructure — in order to adequately present Ukraine to the world.