The first rally in Saaremaa took place in 1974 and was called 'TEHUMARDI-74'. The idea was proposed by Aleksander Tiidus and Slavik Bõstrov, two motorsport enthusiasts from the Transport Base nr. 11, a transport company of the time.
The rally took place as an amateur competition on 23rd-24th of November 1974. The track length was 354 km and out of the 50 cars that started 48 crossed the finish line. There were also other competitive events like stunt driving, slalom, wheelchanging and even granade throwing. The head referee was Juhan Filatov and the head of organizatory comitee was Marti Truu.

The first professional competition took place on 12th-24th of December 1975. Track length was 907.5 km of which 101.1 km were time trials for cars and 48.1 km for trucks. Starting lineup was 30 cars and 48 trucks. 14 cars and 18 trucks crossed the finish line. The winners were Valter Hännikainen-Meinhart Paas on their 'Volga' and Arno Maidla-Raivo Kolk in truck category.
Saaremaa's own team Vello Õunpuu-Ivo Vaher were second.

The Latvians were the first of the former soviet republics to join the action in 1976. Russian federation was added to the list in 1981. The furthest visitors have came from Tseljabinsk and Vladivastok (1989).
In the mid-80's the drivers from the auto production companies of AZLK and VAZ tried their luck here but with little success.
A lot of drivers came from Vologda.

From 1993 the rally has been international and is being called 'Saaremaa'. Since then there have also been Finnish drivers among the competitors - Sebastian Lindholm-Pertti Lahtinen and the world champion of women Eija Jurvanen. The first ones took the gold in 1995 and '96 and the other in 1993.
In 1996-97 Swedish drivers were in the competition on their 'Volvos'. We have had Latvian, Lithuanian and Russian drivers taking part. Drivers from Denmark and Poland have also shown great interest towards the rally but up to date they haven't been in the starting lineup.

In the early years there were two rallys per year - one amateur or truck rally and the other one proffesional car rally. There were altogether 3 amateur competitions and 4 competitons for trucks only.

No rally has taken place without the Kaugatuma-Toomalõuka time trial, which is a true trademark of the rallys in Saaremaa. In the last few years the time trials in the town (first took place in 1980) are once again gaining respect. In the old times the time trial in Upa was a very popular event.

Up to 1995 the main pressure of organizing was on The Transport Base of Saaremaa' ('Transport Base nr. 11'). But in the years 1996 to 1998 the rally was organized by LC Sõrve and in 1999-2000 by Kogula AMK.

The Rally has been a success troughout all these years mainly thaks to the heads of the oraganizatory comitee - Martin Truu (1974-1980), Laine Tarvis (1981-1984) and Jüri Põld (1985-1987). Much credit goes to the head referees Juhan Filatov and especially Slavik Bõstrov (1979-1995) who was the soul of the rally up to the year 1995. His work was successfully carried on by Üllar Seeman.
During the years the organizers had a lot of help from Juhan Filatov, Urve Nõmmiste, Helvi Merirand, Valdi Odar, Meelis Arumeel, Juhan Mänd, Margus Mesipuu and many other rally enthusiasts from the mainland.