Daria Bakai

Daria Bakai, also known as Dasha, is a Ukrainian driver who rallies Mitsubishi Lancers in her home championship, regularly finishing in the top ten.

Dasha was keen on rally cars from a very early age. Her first road car was a Mitsubishi Lancer which she had saved up for between the ages of 18 and 20, although in a Red Bull interview, she confessed to having several minor accidents in it. Despite the roadgoing Lancer not being best-suited to high-speed sprints, she began her competition career in drag racing. She decided on rallying as her preferred career after spectating at the Yalta Rally. 

She began rallying seriously in 2014 and competed extensively in both the Ukrainian championship and the regional Kherson Cup. Her car was a very old Group N Subaru Impreza, as it was the only decent rally car she could afford. Her best result was a sixth place in the Kozatske Rally, but her most prestigious result was probably her tenth place in the Galicia Rally. This was her second top-ten of the year, after another tenth in the Skhydnytsia Rally. She was fourth in class in the Ukrainian championship. 

In 2015, she was still rallying the Impreza. Her best result was a sixteenth place in the Yedyna Krayina One Country Rally. 

In 2016, she performed well in Ukrainian championship rallies. She was seventh in the Golden Fall Rally in the Impreza and eighth in the Khersonske Rally in a Peugeot 206. This was despite having to commute home from Belgium, where she was working. She also found time to compete in Belgium for the 6 Hours of Kortrijk, driving a Ford Fiesta. 

In the end, rallying won out over her work and she moved back to Ukraine. A short break followed while she sold the Impreza and searched for a quicker car. 

Half-way through the 2017 season she finally got to drive her favourite car in anger, rallying a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X in a limited programme. She was third in the XADO DRC rally and fourth in the Rally Kuyainik. 

She repeated her third place in the XADO event in 2018, alongside two other top-ten finishes in Ukrainian rallies. One of these was a ninth place in the Rallye Uman, a Ukrainian championship round where she ran as high as fifth.

Her 2019 season in the Lancer was affected by a couple of bad accidents but when she finished, she was strong. She was third in the Rally Severyn, having won the first stage, and fourth in the Rallye Shchuroftsi. 

Her final championship position was sixth in the regional Liman Cup and would probably have been much higher without the mishaps, which included a fire in the XADO event and radiator trouble in the preceding Rallye Kuyalnik. 

Daria was unable to start her season in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but she was more than ready when the Ukrainian championship did get under way. Driving the same Lancer, she was fourth in her national championship with four top-five positions. The best of these was a fourth place in the Rally Stolytsia. She was fifth in the Galicia and Trembita rallies.

She was fifth in both the Ukrainian and Liman championships in 2021, driving the Evo X. Her best result was another podium, a third in the Rally Kuyalnik, but she was not far off in the Rally Trembita, finishing fourth and less than 2s off third.