Until recently, there was a time when we were looking at soaked roads and last year’s leaves rotting next to them, we enviously remembered winter rallies and their special atmosphere. This year, January, which made us nervous is over and February has taken matters into its own hands, which benevolently gives us the opportunity to once again climb through snow and wait for the rally cars with studded tires. It is already the third competition this year in which Lithuanian-owned N5 cars built in Spain are tested on snow and ice special stages that are difficult for southerners to understand. The first outing was to the far polar circle in Finland, last weekend the Lithuanians tore up the roads of Estonia, and for this Saturday’s adventures N5 classmates chose between two events – “7Bet Winter Rally Aukštaitija” and “Ralljis Sarma”. In unison, everyone will flock to this year’s winter rally capital – Zarasai.
In the vicinity of Zarasai, we will see a record number of N5 class cars. Since “7Bet Winter Rally Aukštaitija” is an event of the Lithuanian car rally sprint championship, many main championship participants will participate in this rally as guests. This means that we will see the N5 cars a bit unusually late, as the participants of the Rally Sprint Championship will start first. The highest number – 30 was received by Rokas Steponavičius with Dovydas Ketvirtis, for whom, like #33 Kajus Samsonas and #37 Vilmantas Padegimas, this will be the second weekend in a row in a rally car. Well, the whole trio drove quite a different amount of kilometers last weekend in Oteppa. Only Rokas Steponavičius with Ford Fiesta N5 reached the finish line. The VW Polo N5 car of Kajus Samsonas has already been repaired after failure in Estonia and is ready for the assault on Zarasai roads. Vilmantas Padegimas, who has driven only one stage in Estonia with Renault Clio N5, has chosen a new co-driver – Edvardas Gurevičius. For one of the organizers of “7Bet Winter Rally Aukštaitija”, Aurimas Eižiūnas and his co-driver Justinas Barysas, this will be the debut behind the wheel of the Ford Fiesta N5. This rally will also be the debut for Tomas Šmagarys with Valdas Čiuplys and their Hyundai i20 N5. However, this crew covered almost 500 kilometers on the snow in Finland before the start in Zarasai, and this process was accompanied by former WRC driver and current teacher of Tomas – Kristian Sohlberg. You can read an interview about the training process here. Another crew is participating in this rally, which we will see behind the wheel of Škoda Fabia N5+ in the future, but before the car is finished, Eugenijus Sladkevičius and Marius Kairys will start in Zarasai with a Subaru Impreza WRX car prepared by Mindaugas Varža.
“7Bet Winter Rally Aukštaitija” is a short and compact rally. Everything will take place on one day – Saturday. In the morning, the teams will take care of administrative matters, the mechanics will submit the cars for technical inspection, and at that time the crews will do the Reece of four special stages, which will be run twice in the afternoon. The special stages are short, but the terrain of the Zarasai area and the winter conditions will definitely cause a lot of challenges for the participants. The first rally section of four stages will take place during the day, after which the crews will return to the service area. After resting, strengthening, and fixing their cars, the participants will do four more special stages. Well, these will take place in total darkness.
7Bet Winter Rally Aukštaitija route card (2022-02-11, Saturday)
| SS1 | 15min (Dimitriškės) | 4,02 km | 14:00 |
| SS2 | Kia (Smėlynė) | 7,70 km | 14:25 |
| SS3 | Spark Energy (Dimitriškės) | 4,02 km | 14:55 |
| SS4 | Samsonas Motorsport (Smėlynė) | 7,70 km | 15:20 |
| Servise zone (Zarasai) | 1h 30 min | 15:40 | |
| SS5 | 7bet I (Karvelinė) | 7,62 km | 18:00 |
| SS6 | Visweld (Cholopovka) | 6,09 km | 18:15 |
| SS7 | 7bet II (Karvelinė) | 7,62 km | 18:45 |
| SS8 | Langasta (Cholopovka) | 6,09 km | 19:00 |