Karl Kruuda topped off his 2014 season with a WRC2 class fifth place in Wales Rally GB, securing joint fourth place in the WRC2 championship.
It’s been a positive year for the young Estonian who also secured the Finnish Rally Championship this year; Kruuda has been taking part in his Ford Fiesta Super 2000 and has shown promising pace, despite being up against the latest-generation turbocharged R5 and Regional Rally Cars that are also eligible for WRC2.
Kruuda has taken two victories in WRC2 this year, one in Sweden then another in Finland and ends the year with the joint-second highest number of wins (Yuriy Protasov also took two victories) behind champion Nasser Al-Attiyah.
Talking about the challenge of Wales Rally GB Kruuda explained that he and co-driver Martin Jarveoja gave everything they could.
“We gave it a good go and I think we achieved the maximum that we could,” he said. “Look at it this way: I was squeezing the orange as hard as I could and there weren’t many more drops of performance of performance left to come out! Most of the time was spent either at the limit or very close to it.
“Unfortunately we knew we were at a disadvantage here before we started: it’s only the really fast events, like Poland or Finland, where the Super 2000 car might have an advantage now. Everywhere else you struggle a bit, because the game has moved on. But I still enjoyed myself a lot last weekend. Wales is one of the classic rallies; a real driver’s event, so it would be strange if you didn’t like it…”
With the WRC2 championship a total of seven scoring events can be nominated, Kruuda chose Sweden, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Finland, Spain and Britain.
Now the 2014 season is over Kruuda switches his focus to the 2015 programme which is due to be announced soon. “We’re putting a few plans in place and we’ve learned a lot from this year that will enable us to approach next season stronger than ever,”
“We still have a few details to sort out but I’m already looking forward to getting back on the stages next year. And don’t worry – our car livery is going to be as crazy as ever!”
