Vitaliy Pushkar

Pushkar was born in Kishineu, Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic – in present-day Moldova – and began competing at the beginning of 2009 with his childhood friend Ivan Mishyn as a co-driver.[1] Their first car was the all-wheel-drive two-liter turbo Subaru Impreza earlier belonging to Igor Chapovskyi.[2]

During that year Pushkar started 11 times in different rallying competitions – and only not finishing once, at the Bukovina rally, due to technical problems.

Vitaliy Pushkar and Ivan Mishyn on rally Bukovina, Chernivtsi, 2009

Pushkar changed car to a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX and employed Ukrainian rally champion Oleksandr Saliuk, Jr. as a coach. In May 2010, Pushkar won his first race, the Shapovalov Rally Cup, and finished inside the top ten fastest Ukrainian drivers at the end of the season.

During the two next seasons, Pushkar was among the leaders of the Ukrainian rally championship, finishing the several rallies on the podium. In 2011, he reached the top five of the Ukrainian Rally Championship overall standings for the first time, and became the first and only winner of the Cup of Friendship, organized by the Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian Automobile Federations.[3]

The 2013 season was the most successful for Pushkar, now involved in the Ukrainian rally title battle. Winning the Chumatskyi Shlyakh rally and placing third in the Mariupol rally made him one of the season favorites. An accident during the Galicia rally weakened his standings. The overall title was decided at the Ivano-Frankivsk Trembita rally, but although Pushkar won that race, he did not take the title, coming second to his fellow Odessa Rally Team driver Youriy Kochmar.[4]

After 2010, Pushkar increased his number of international starts. He participated in the Latvian and Estonian championships, and in 2012 he took part in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. He won his first international race, the Romanian Rally Sibiu[5] and finished the season in sixth place in IRC Production. He began to work closely with the Lithuanian ProRacing Team.

Vitaliy Pushkar and Ivan Mishyn on rally Kyivska Rus, Kyiv, 2011

In 2013 Vitaliy Pushkar participated in European Rally Championship for the first time, which had been amalgamated with the IRC in late 2012.[6] He placed fifth in the Production Cup at the 2013 Rally Liepāja-Ventspils; but, after the several accidents and technical retirements he stopped the participating in ERC that year.

He returned to the ERC in 2014. He started the season with an accident at the Jänner Rally,[7] but finished second at the Rally Liepāja–Ventspils and won the Acropolis Rally.[8]

At the end of the season, Pushkar safely finished at the Rallye du Valais and Tour de Corse, and after scoring 167 points became the European Rally Champion among the Production Car drivers.[9]