Sander Pärn’s cooperation with his co-driver Ken Järveoja has been excellent and together they have spent years (12-year-old Sander and 22-year-old Ken sat down in one car in the autumn of 2004) to grow into a globally competitive team. However, sometimes it is good to change one’s routine to achieve better results and gain experience. This is the path that Sander Pärn’s great role model and mentor, Markko Märtin, decided to follow at a certain point in his career.
Welshman James Morgan, who will co-drive with Sander Pärn at the Võrumaa Talveralli, was in 2013 a Junior WRC co-ordinator together with one-time Malcolm Wilson’s co-driver Phil Short. This is where the Pärn – Järveoja team got to know James Morgan and shortly had the idea of asking James to help the team. James has not yet participated as a co-driver in a winter rally and so he will also gain a new experience. At the Võrumaa Talveralli Pärn and Morgan will compete in a Ford Fiesta R2, which is the car Sander Pärn and Ken Järveoja drove last year to become 2WD Estonian champions. In the pre-rally week, the pair will train in pacenote writing and have a two-day rally exercise on Võru County’s roads.
James Michael Morgan was born on 25 April 1991 in Wales in the town of Aberdare where he still lives. He works as a technical maintenance engineer of airplanes at the British Airways. To date James Morgan’s racing career includes 40 starts in various British series, of which 18 have been driven with a WRC car. His supervisors have been world champion co-drivers Nicky Grist (world champion together with Juha Kankkunen in 1993; has also read pacenotes for the 1995 world champion Colin McRae) and Robert Reid (world champion together with Richard Burns in 2001).

Comments by those involved

Ken Järveoja: ”There comes a time when a young and developing rally driver needs to introduce changes to raise his level. There are various possibilities; our chosen method is to involve another co-driver, speaking another language, into the team.”
Sander Pärn: ”Since I have had one co-driver throughout my six-year rally career (the first start was on 23 Februrary 2008 at the Estonian Rally championship), involving a new team member will certainly demand even more devotion and concentration from me in order to achieve better results and become a success in the international racing world.”
James Morgan: ”I am looking forward to competing alongside Sander, I hope that we can make a successful partnership inside the rally car. I first met Sander at Rallye de France and it was clear to me that he is a driver who is willing to work very hard to achieve his goals. The rally will be my first event in Estonia and also my first proper winter rally, however with the guidance I receive as part of the the MSA Team UK from Nicky Grist and Robert Reid, I feel I am more than prepared for the challenges that wait ahead for me in Estonia and the rest of the world”.

Sander Pärn’s rally team is optimistically looking forward to the rally week and hopes that the Welshman will like Võrumaa’s domed landscape. The goal is to get accustomed to English-language pacenotes while achieving great speeds. All in all, there is still no clear picture about the 2014 rally season. The plan is to participate at the World Championship in the 2WD series. However, the things are more certain with the Estonian Rally Championship where once again hands were shaken with the Finnish colleague and competitor Niko Pekka Niminen and his team Katap Racing regarding a racing car.

Although no snow means that the 43th Tartu Marathon has been cancelled, the first car will start at the Võrumaa Talveralli from the central square of Võru on Sunday, 16 February at 8.30 a.m. There will be a total of eight speed trials totalling 105.07 kilometres. The first racing car will arrive at the finishing podium at 6.40 p.m. This year, the Estonian Rally Championship will have seven legs, of which two are winter rallies. The second leg of the championship will be just a week later, on 22–23 February within the framework of the Sarma Rally to be held in Latvia.

Calendar of the 2014 Estonian Rally Championship:
1. Võrumaa Talveralli, 16 February
2. Sarma Rally (in Latvia), 22– 23 February
3. Harju Rally, 23–24 May
4. Grossi Toidukaubad Viru Rally 2014, 13–14 June
5. Auto24 Rally Estonia 2014, 18–19 July
6. Tartu Rally 2014, 12–13 September
7. Saaremaa Rally 2014, 10–11 October