Opportunity of a lifetime for Lukyanuk

Russian crew Alexey Lukyanuk and Alexey Arnautov have been offered the chance of a lifetime: a World Rally car drive on a World Rally Championship round.

So far of the revealed plans we’ve found out that Lukyanuk will drive a Ford Fiesta RS WRC serviced by M-Sport World Rally Team at WRC Neste Oil Rally Finland.

The crew Lukyanuk and Arnautov got the invitation to drive the rally from the head of  “Academy Rally” team, Mihail Lepehov, who has a lot of experience on WRC level, as he was the one who supported Evgeniy Novikov’s career – the first Russian pilot driving for a factory team.

Lepehov: “Academy Rally had the chance to give one crew a drive on a World Rally Championship round and we decided to offer the chance to Alexey Lukyanuk. I know that Lukyanuk really wants to drive a machine like that so I decided to give him the chance.

Of course we selected Neste Oil Rally Finland. It’s a classic rally and a favourite for the Russian fans. Every rally driver wants to do the rally of a 1000 Lakes, it’s one of the most popular in the world. We invite all our fans and crews to support Lucas! ”

Lukyanuk: “A year ago I couldn’t even dream of such an opportunity. I’m very happy to get back into the car again with Alexey Arnautov, whom with we won the Russian and the Estonian championships last year. We have a lot of experience and we have worked together for a long time. To be honest, we’ve already started preparing for the rally: training, studying onboards. And we hope to find the budget to do some rallies in Lithuania or Finland as a preparation for Neste Oil Rally Finland. I am very grateful to Academy Rally and Mihail Lepehov for the chance!”

Lukyanuk and Arnautov last took part in Neste Oil Rally Finland in 2013, which was also their WRC debut. They managed a top 8 stage time and a victory in class “3” with a 16th position overall in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 N4.

Text: alexeylukyanuk.com

Translated: Karlip