Skoda UK Motorsport driver Andreas Mikkelsen hopes that a trip into the unknown will enable him to get the better of his Intercontinental Rally Challenge rivals on the Prime Yalta Rally in Ukraine this weekend.
The rally is a new event on the series' calendar, and with none of the regular drivers having driven the stages before, Andreas believes that he and co-driver Ola Floene will have a great opportunity to score a good result.
“The Prime Yalta Rally is new to the IRC and none of the championship contenders have done the rally before, so I feel this could be really good for us,” said the Norwegian.
“Ola and I have a very good pace note system and I learn new stages quickly, so we are always comfortable driving very fast through new stages for the first time. A nice clean and fast start will be important, because we drive over the same roads many times, so drivers will soon get to know their way around.
“The only thing I've heard about the event is that the stages are really challenging and the grip level is low. There are a lot of tarmac experts in the IRC, so the less that is known about a rally and the more difficult the conditions the better it is for us. Let's just say we are really looking forward to going to the Ukraine for the first time and hope it's as big a challenge as everyone predicts it will be.”
