Finally, the winter rally has come to our yard. Last year we had a non-championship event in Ignalina, this year – the LARSČ rally in Zarasai. Hey, maybe next year winter will return to Lithuania Rally Championship? That would be a lot of fun. Well, this weekend the Zarasai motorsports club “Akseleratorius” and its partners prepared a 50-kilometer long competition, which consisted of 4 different special stages driven twice each. The first part of the rally took place during the day, and the second – after dark. The conditions unfortunately bore little resemblance to the usual conditions for a real winter rally, such as last weekend in Otepe. It was not much better in Gulbene, 200 km to the north, around which Ralljis Sarma took place. The snow cover was melted very quickly by the rain, the spectators’ faces were frozen by the strong wind, and the roads initially turned into snow mush with various, slightly cleared lines appearing little by little. Later, those lines turned into gravel ruts in places. The grip was constantly changing, and among other things, the starting position was also a big factor in the results. In other words, although the competition was well organized, the weather made the conditions extremely difficult for both the racers and the spectators.
As many as five N5 class crews started as guests in this rally:
| #30 | Rokas Steponavičius | Dovydas Ketvirtis | Ford Fiesta N5 | AWD+ |
| #31 | Tomas Šmagarys | Valdas Čiuplys | Hyundai i20 N5 | AWD+ |
| #33 | Kajus Samsonas | Justas Vičiūnas | Volkswagen Polo N5 | AWD+ |
| #34 | Aurimas Eidžiūnas | Justas Barysas | Ford Fiesta N5 | AWD+ |
| #37 | Vilmantas Padegimas | Edvardas Gurevičius | Renault Clio N5 | AWD+ |
In the first four stages, there was quite a three-way battle. Giedrius Notkus with Škoda Fabia R5 and Kajus Samsonas with VW Polo N5 each shared two victories in special stages, although Kajus finished one of them with a punctured wheel. It seems that Friday’s training helped a lot to feel the white Polo and Kajus arrived at the service area in Zarasai as the leader of the rally. Although Rokas Steponavičius did not win a single stage during the day, he showed the same pace as Kajus and Giedrius and after the 4 daylight stages, he was only 0.2 seconds behind the son of Martynas Samsonas. Tomas Šmagarys was in seventh place halfway through the rally. He was challenged by the car’s settings, which were perfectly suited to the smooth snow roads of Finland, but it seems that they were not at all suited to the snow and gravel mush that was in Zarasai this weekend. The top ten was completed by Aurimas Eidžiūnas and Justas Barysas, for whom it was their debut in the rally with the new Ford Fiesta N5. Seventeenth was Vilmantas Padegimas with Edvardas Gurevičius. This new crew had the task of learning to work together at this rally. It was Edvardas first start after an 18-year hiatus.
After a rather long – one and a half hour in the service area, the participants installed additional lights and set off for the last four special stages of the rally. In them, G. Notkus, R. Steponavičius, and R. Čapkauskas made the status quo. This trio finished the rally in this way. GSR Motorsport representatives Rokas Steponavičius and Dovydas Ketvirtis deserved special praise, as they finished the second rally in a row in a new car and got on the podium in Zarasai. Since after the service, all the participants were lined up according to the results of the first four stages, Kajus had to go first after the rally sprint participants. This starting position made it much more difficult for Kajus due to the countless different trajectories left by the sprinters, which threw Kaju’s VW Polo all the way, which resulted in him falling to fourth position in the overall standings. After the service zone, the results of Tomas Šmagaris improved, but unfortunately, it was not enough to rise from the 7th position. Aurimas Eidžiūnas and Justas Barysas lost three positions in the night stages, for whom it was the first outing with a real sports car on an extremely difficult, sherbet-like surface. For Vilmantas Padegimas and Edvinas Gurevičius, the night stages were a great training session, and after them, the crew moved up one position and finished sixteenth.
It’s extremely nice because of two things – the winter rally taking place in Lithuania after all and the finish of all N5 crews in this rally. An additional icing on the cake is the podium of Rokas Steponavičius and Dovydas Ketvirtis in the overall standings. While many will wait for the opening of the summer season in Viekšniai, maybe we will see someone from the N5 crews in a couple of weeks at the Alūksne rally in the north of Latvia, which was postponed from the end of January.
| Driver | Co-driver | Car | Team | Class | Time | Overall | Class | |||
 | Rokas Steponavičius | | Dovydas Ketvirtis |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | GSR Motorsport | AWD+ | 31:42.11 | 2 | 2 |
| Kajus Samsonas | | Justas Vičiūnas |  | Volkswagen Polo N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | AWD+ | 32:31.60 | 4 | 3 |
| Tomas Šmagarys | | Valdas Čiuplys |  | Hyundai i20 N5 | Autoralis | AWD+ | 33:23.72 | 7 | 4 |
| Aurimas Eidžiūnas | | Justas Barysas | | Ford Fiesta N5 | RALLY 4 FUN | AWD+ | 34:44.92 | 13 | 5 |
| Vilmantas Padegimas | | Edvinas Gurevičius |  | Renault Clio N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | AWD+ | 35:26.37 | 16 | 6 |
Photos – Pavel Žukov