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This year marked the 32nd instalment of the Saturnus rally competition, which started as one of the more ambitious rally gatherings and one of the top car shows back in the '70s in the former Yugoslavia. Numerous European greats tried their luck on the very demanding and unforgiving turns of the Slovenian rally, only to come across the finish line empty handed, but all of them agreed that, if nothing else, this racing experience made them better.

Even though these days the economic crisis is devastating many, the Saturnus organisers decided to take a risk and proceed with the race. Although the number of teams participating was smaller this year than in previous years, in the end the risk paid off, as the race was still a big hit and drew many spectators and some of the top rally drivers, who provided some great entertainment.

The organisation of such a project is very demanding. This year, they had various teams taking care of specific areas. For instance, one team was solely focused on all the things related with funding of the competition, while another team was taking care of everything related to the race itself - preparing the race tracks, contacting the drivers, etc.

Strong competition

This year's race had sixteen time trials. It all started on the speedway track in Ljubljana - this is sort of a specialty of the Saturnus rally, as many regard this part as a "race within the race" - then continued the next day in towns Hrastnik, Trbovlje and Prebold in the Zasavje region and finishing on the third and last day in Gospodarsko razstavišče in the centre of Ljubljana.

Despite a few missing teams, the competition was still very strong this year, especially with all the best Czech and Austrian drivers showing up. Saturnus even lured German multiple champion Hermann Gassner. But for every great driver attending, there was one missing. Due to various reasons, Slovenian rally legends, such as Andrej Jereb, Tomaž Kaučič and Tomi Cilenšek, who had all attended Saturnus in the previous years, were "no shows" this time around.

The main event

The first day of racing was at a speedway track. This "superspecial" event was more or less meant for the crowd, which got to see some spectacular drifting through the corners and turns of the muddy racing track. This was also the shortest time trial of all, but nonetheless worth seeing. This race was won by Czech Pavel Valoušek, followed by his countryman Vaclav Pech and Slovenian Darko Peljhan.

On the second day, the rally caravan moved to the devious roads of Zasavje. After a great battle between Valoušek and Pech, the later came out a winner and took the overall lead by a hair, while Peljhan finished third again, fortifying his overall position.

It was time for the final test and the atmosphere was very tense before the start of the final day. But just as soon as the race started, it was almost over. Valoušek lost a tire right at the beginning, which gave him quite a setback. Even Slovenia's sole hope Peljhan managed to get in front of him for awhile, but could not keep his position until the end of the race. This can not be said about Pech, who took advantage of his adversary's misfortune and never looked back, coming across the finish line with the best time and winning the Saturnus rally for the second year in a row. Valoušek, who was once considered one of the top young European talents, finished second and showed that he has got enough skill and talent to win this race in the future.

There is always next year

Already a legend in Slovenian rally, Darko Peljhan, who had silently hoped for an upset and perhaps a top podium finish, came across the finish time with third best time, but more importantly, he took the lead in the National Championship. Besides being one of the races in the European competition, Rally Saturnus also separately counts for the Slovenian championship.

"I did not have any problems. Everything was OK, a good race. Saturnus is always a difficult test. The Czechs were just too strong, they were impossible to catch, but I was always close, maybe even faster on certain sections, which means that I am not obsolete yet," Darko commented.

Darko Peljhan has always throughout his career shown that he is a great racer and competitor. We can not be sure what the future hold, but if everything goes as planned, it is certain we will see Peljhan try his luck again on the dangerous curves in the next year's Saturnus rally.