The 2023 Estonian Rally Championship finally started last weekend. Well, it should have started much earlier in the Alūksne rally, but the weather in the Baltic region often significantly distorts the plans of participants and organizers. However, the Otepa region remained frosty, and it snowed during the days of the rally, so ideal conditions were created for the winter rally, which was visited by 4 crews from Lithuania and three of them were transporting N5 cars in their trailers. Kajus Samsonas and Justas Vičiūnas made their debut with a VW Polo N5, while Rokas Steponavičius and Dovydas Ketvirtis also made their debut with a Ford Fiesta N5. The only Vilmantas Padegimas with a Renault Clio N5 has already driven a couple of hundred kilometers with a new car.
Otepää talveralli was a much simpler rally than the Arctic Lapland Rally held a few weeks ago. On Friday, the participants passed the administrative and technical commissions, made the Reece, and tested their cars in shakedown. From early Saturday morning, the fun began – 8 special stages, 110 kilometers of them, and almost 300 kilometers of liaison. This number is quite high due to the wide geography of the stages and two short and one long service zones in Oteppa. The rally roads offered a huge test to the participants – an endless number of crests, corners through them, and huge ditches on the sides of the rather narrow road. What’s more, the start is early in the morning, so most of the crews had to start at dusk with additional lights. Additional lights were also needed in the last two stages, which took place in complete darkness.
The very first special stage presented an unpleasant surprise – after successfully watching the crews of Rokas Steponvičius and Kajus Samsonas on the stage, the car of Vilmantas Padegimas still did not appear as it should. Only at the end of the entire field did a white Renault Clio N5 emerge from around the corner. Unfortunately, Vilmantas and Tomas did not start the next stage. Due to the pacenotes being read too late, Vilmantas Renault Clio ended up in the snowbank, and the operation to free the car lasted a good twenty minutes. Also, the intercom was damaged during the incident. Due to excessive delays to the time control point and equipment damage, the crew headed home much earlier than planned.
Another Lithuanian crew disappeared from the lineup quite quickly. When Kajus Samsonas and Justas Vičiūnas started the third stage, they felt that the car’s power was gone, and the spectators were saddened by the sound of only three working cylinders. After finishing the stage in emergency mode and consulting with colleagues Rokas Steponavičius and the mechanics, the VW Polo crew decided not to risk damaging the engine even more and withdrew from the competition. Fortunately, the engine failure was not very serious and the crew will start this weekend in Zarasai.
The history of this rally was completely different for Rokas Steponavičius with Dovydas Ketvirtis and their Ford Fiesta N5. The car, which was just fine-tuned at the dyno stand before the rally, was running well, the newly formed crew worked together successfully and a rather excellent result came out of it all. The Lithuanian Ford Fiesta N5 raced in the top fifteen and was twelfth before the last special stage. The ideal finish was spoiled by the car stalling at the start of the last stage, which was helped by rally fans, who pushed the car in the good old-fashioned way until it started. This failure cost them one place in the general standings, where Rokas and Dovydas finished thirteenth, and second in their EMV1 class, only behind World Rally Champion Ott Tanak, for whom it was practice before the Swedish WRC round.
That was the trip to the south of Estonia, which showed where you need to improve in order to be in the best shape before the summer season.
Next weekend, the action will move to7Bet Winter Rally Aukštaitija 2023 🙂
Results:
| Driver | Co-driver | Car | Class | Time | Overall | Class |
| Rokas Steponavičius | Dovydas Ketvirtis | Ford Fiesta N5 | EMV1 | 1:08:21.4 | #13 | #2 |
| Kajus Samsonas | Justas Vičiūnas | Volkswagen Polo N5 | EMV1 | Engine failure | ||
| Vilmantas Padegimas | Tomas Zamara | Renault Clio N5 | EMV1 | Late to time control |
Photos – Alfonsas Rakauskas Photography