When Dakar ace Vladas Jurkevičius tamed the ERC

The 31-year-old, who completed January’s gruelling Dakar behind the wheel of a Toyota Hilux, drove a Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo to his maiden ERC points on the Veszprém-based event alongside co-driver and fellow Lithuanian Aisvydas Paliukėnas.   

Afterwards, the Eldorado x Humbility Sports-entered Jurkevičius said: “It was a really interesting experience, especially with these roads. Underneath it’s quite a hard surface but on the top there are lots of loose stones. There is a huge difference in grip depending on your road position, so it was a tricky beginning. But from the second loop it was really much better and we were really enjoying it. We were expecting the roads to be really rocky, but the road condition was better than we expected so overall we are really happy.”

Jurkevičius has since gone on to take victory on 7bet Gravel Fest Rally Lazdijai, a round of his national championship. But further ERC outings remain a possibility.  

“I didn’t have plans [to do more ERC events] but so far the emotions are really good here so maybe, we’ll see,” he said.  

Dakar makes Jurkevičius Hungary
Vladas Jurkevičius was asked how V-Híd Rally Hungary differed from the Saudi Arabia-based Dakar, a round of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship. He offered this comparison.  

“Whoever thinks the road surface here is rocky or bad, you guys should see Dakar,” Jurkevičius said. “Everything is at a completely different level in terms of roughness of the road, here is nothing. Here if we have a hit it’s a bit sad for the car, in Dakar if you have a hit it’s sad for your body because those hits are much harder.”