Homepage About us (OUR HISTORY)

About us (OUR HISTORY)

It all began in 1967 when the 1st YU Rally was organized by the Academic Automobile and Motorcycle Club. The activists of this club were not aware then that their dreams would come true and that the YU Rally would become the traditional and most important automobile sports competition in the area of the ex-Yugoslavia and beyond, counting for the European championship.

As of 1988, the organization of this rally event has been entrusted to the Automobile and Motorcycle Association of Serbia, which runs the YU Rally very successfully, bringing it to the coefficient 10, the greatest coefficient of the regional competition in this part of Europe.

Some figures about the scope and size of the organizational endeavors and efforts put in this most important rally event in the country, from the first kilometers till to date, speak for themselves.

The longest itinerary of the Rally was 2.522 km, in 1972, the first year in which points were scored for the European championship. The greatest overall length of the special stages was 435 km, and at the same time, the largest number of special stages – 44 of them, was run in 1985. The largest number of crews admitted to the start was 115, at the 12th YU Rally, and the smallest number of crews that finished the Rally – only 9 of them, was recorded in 1976.

Just to mention some of the famous rally drivers – participants and winners of the YU Rally: Pinto, Verini, Kleint, all of the European champions, then Rusling, Kvaisar, Blahna, Ferjancz, Krupa, Kizmic, Wittmann, Bozic, Palikovic, Savic, Volkan Isik, Kazaz, Petrov, Kolev, Iliev, Jereb, Doncev. The only women crew that won the Rally was the crew of Donatella Tominz, as a driver, and Gabriella Mamolo, as co-driver, from Italy, whose victory is inscribed in Rally books forever.

The itineraries of the YU Rally comprised the roads in the whole ex-Yugoslavia, and the start of the Rally included, besides other places – Portoroz, Kopar, Porec, Bosanski Brod, Tivat, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Uzice, Bajina Basta, etc.