Why ERC star Lukyanuk’s Czech adventure won’t be a one-off

Instead, the rapid Russian will contest five rounds of the highly competitive national series alongside his ERC campaign, which began with victory on the Azores Airlines Rallye last month.

“We are opening a new page, a new experience,” said Lukyanuk. “We are quite positive, maybe we will not be able to fight straight away, but we have to find our pace, get the feeling and hope the speed will be there.”

Due to clashes with his ERC campaign, Lukyanuk will miss the Valašská Rally ValMez and Agrotec Rally Hustopeče. But he’s relishing the challenge of taking on Czech champions like Jan Kopecký and Václav Pech, plus top ERC Junior Jan Černý.

“It's good to be on the roads they know, almost each corner,” said Lukyanuk. “I will learn a lot from them and it's great because we have to adapt quickly and find proper pace, lines and so on. It will be big experience for us."

As well as the opportunity to chase Czech championship honours, Lukyanuk believes his outings in the country can boost his ERC bid, particularly on August’s Barum Czech Rally Zlín, which counts for both championships.

“It's good preparation for our ERC Tarmac events,” he said. “But here we also want to show ourselves in the best way and say thanks to our sponsor ROKO airplanes as they giving us this chance to drive here. We want to show potential of our team. On the other hand, we will have more mileage behind the steering wheel of our Fiesta R5. It's good for me, because we have not so many test kilometres and each rally and stage is important for me. Knowing the car and myself better, learning new skills, it's amazing.”

Lukyanuk’s navigator Alexey Arnautov will co-drive their H-Racing Fiesta, which is entered under the Russian Performance Motorsport banner on ERC events.

With thanks to Jan Vaskovic.Photo:Jan Vaskovic