Finally. Perhaps the recent thoughts are best embodied by this word. Since these thoughts are many and revolve around everything, let us just focus on what is finally going to happen – the warm season rally season will begin. As it is common lately – the season starts not with the first event of LARČ, but with an non-championship, but very high-profile competition somewhere in the northeast of Lithuania. It happened once in Ignalina, and last year and this year in Visaginas. Competitions organized by rally enthusiasts are of great importance for many drivers at this time. Last week and this week, sports engines roared all over Lithuania, powering cars of different classes in closed tests. Although the tests are extremely useful, they do not provide the features that can be tested and experienced in a real competition. I.e. the number of different sports kilometers and their reece, the competition, the rhythm of rally and much more. Therefore, it is extremely useful to run in real competitions after tests before the season. The enthusiasts of Visaginas Rally, led by Tadas Balaišis, will provide exactly this opportunity.
The “N5” team will not miss this opportunity to test themselves in a competitive environment before the season. This will be the biggest meeting of these cars in the history of Lithuanian rally. In winter we had as many as five cars on the first event of LARSČ at “Aukštaitija Rally”. A month ago, 5 N5 crews from Lithuania also competed against the locals in Spain. This time we should have eight cars in Visaginas. This number should be even higher at the first stage of the LARČ in Viekšniai. We will see both teams that have already warmed up well and those for whom it will be the first official start with “N5” equipment. There will be both simpler “N5” cars and slightly more powerful ones – “N5+”. As the list of participants is extremely competitive, it will be possible to see what the “N5” technology is worth in the context of Lithuanian rallying.
The “N5” eight can be divided into two parts. In the first one – Martynas Samsonas, Vilmantas Padegimas, Linas Vaškys and Aurimas Eidžiūnas. All these racers are more or less familiar with their cars. Martynas will compete in his second year with his Škoda Fabia N5+, even though this year is his first time with this car. In the winter he participated in the Arctic with a VW Polo N5 and in Spain with a Nissan Micra N5.
Vilmantas Padegimas has done most sports rally kilometers this year. Since he bought the “Renault Clio N5”, Vilmantas does not leave it in the garage for long. This will be the sixth competition this year. The search for a permanent co-pilot ended with the appointment of his compatriot Edvardas Gurevičius, so now Vilmantas can fully concentrate on driving and compete with his “N5 colleagues”. The other two crews have a little less experience. Linas Vaškys, like Martynas Samsonas, has participated in the “Arctic Lapland” rally and the “Rally da Auga” in Spain. Linas has also competed as zero car in 2022 “Samsonas Rally Utena”. The start of Aurimas Eidžiūnas in Visaginas was on the line. If the “Rally Aukštaitija” was successfully completed, the adventure in Spain ended rather sadly. Where the Ford Fiesta N5 of Rokas Steponavičius rolled, Aurimas car landed exactly in the same place. However, the team “8000 RPM” managed to repair the damaged car and we will see Aurimas and Justas Barysas again in Visaginas.
For the next quartet “Rally Visaginas” will be the first official debut with “N5” cars. Eugenijus Sladkevičius drove a Mitsubishi Mirage Proto II for the last four years. Already at the end of last year production of a bright red and very fast “Škoda Fabia N5+” started for him. This year Eugenijus participated in the “Rally Aukštaitija”, but not with the “Škoda Fabia”, which was not ready yet, but with the “Subaru Impreza N14” of Mindaugas Varža. Another N5 member – Deividas Gezevičius – will drive exactly this car in Visaginas, because he did not have time to finish his “Ford Fiesta N5”. Another racer has changed his Mitsubishi brand car to “N5” – 2022 “LARČ 3” champion Paulius Beniušis. Paulius chose a somewhat unusual body for our region – “Citroen C3 N5”, which will decorate our special stages this season.
Nedas Radišauskas spread the gravel roads of Lithuania last year with an impressive drive in a BMW M3 car. However, in Visaginas we will see Nedas in the VW Polo N5, previously driven by Kajus Samsonas. Justas Vičiūnas, Kajus’ co-driver, will sit next to Nedas in both Visaginas and Viekšniai.
Darius Biesevičiaus participated in the tests near Grendavė with his “Ford Fiesta N5”. This car is intended for rental and was tested during the tests by drivers such as Karolis Kairys or Giedrius Notkus. We will see this “Ford Fiesta N5” also in Visaginas, and Ramūnas Čapkauskas will sit in it with his son Titas. It would probably be easier to enumerate what Ramūnas Čapkauskas has not won in the world of Lithuanian motorsport than what he has won. The complete legend has always admired competitions where the same equipment is used and the results are determined not by horsepower, but by the skill of the driver. The idea of the “N5” comes very close to this, and it is probably only natural that it attracted the attention of the multiple Lithuania champion. Maybe the man from Kaunas will put his legendary “Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX” in a museum and we will see him with the “N5″ constantly on the LARČ stages”? We will see 🙂
As for the rally itself, it is completely compact. Everything will take place in one day. In the morning, participants will complete the administrative and technical formalities and will do reece of 5 special stages. Then, in the afternoon, the official start of the rally in Visaginas will take place. The rally itinerary consists of 5 different special stages, each of which the participants will complete twice. In total 56.46 sport kilometers and 173 kilometers of road sections. The organizers of the rally do not want to leave out the residents of Visaginas, so the special stage 9/10 will take place in the town of Visaginas itself with an artificial jump installed in the stadium. The other special stages will be located south and north of Visaginas itself. The SS 2/4 will run right on the Latvian border. The roads will demand quite a bit of concentration from the crews, as the stages are fast, and narrow with crests, and there is no lack of various hazards on the roadsides. The length of the stages, which reaches 4-7 kilometers, will not allow anyone to slow down anywhere.
See you in Visaginas 🙂
| Driver | Co-Driver | Car | Team | Class | ||||
 | Martynas Samsonas | | Ervinas Snitkas |  | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | AWD+ (N5+) | |
| Linas Vaškys | | Laurynas Paškevičius | | Škoda Fabia N5+ | ORLEN Lietuva-Mažeikių ASK | AWD+ (N5+) | |
| Eugenijus Sladkevičius | | Marius Kairys | | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | AWD+ (N5+) | |
| Vilmantas Padegimas | | Edvardas Gurevičius |  | Renault Clio N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | AWD+ (N5) | |
| Aurimas Eidžiūnas | | Justas Barysas |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | 7Bet racing by RALLY4FUN | AWD+ (N5) | |
| Nedas Radišauskas | | Justas Vičiūnas |  | VW Polo N5 | Autoralis | AWD+ (N5) | |
| Paulius Beniušis | | Kristupas Adinavičius |  | Citroen C3 N5 | ST-SPORT | AWD+ (N5) | |
| Ramūnas Čapkauskas | | Titas Čapkauskas | | Ford Fiesta N5 | Čapkauskas Autocentras Team | AWD+ (N5) |
„Rally Visaginas“ 2023 Itinerary
| April 29 th, Saturday | |||
| SS1 | Čepukiškė 1 | 5,13 km | 12:25 |
| SS2 | Turmantas 1 | 7,19 km | 12:40 |
| SS3 | Čepukiškė 2 | 5,13 km | 13:25 |
| SS4 | Turmantas 2 | 7,19 km | 13:30 |
| Servise zone (Visaginas) | 01:00 | 14:00 | |
| SS5 | Bagdoniškė 1 | 4,70 km | 15:55 |
| SS6 | Bieniūnai 1 | 7,05 km | 16:30 |
| SS7 | Bagdoniškė 2 | 4,70 km | 17:15 |
| SS8 | Bieniūnai 2 | 7,05 km | 17:50 |
| Servise zone (Visaginas) | 01:00 | 18:15 | |
| SS9 | Visaginas 1 | 4,16 km | 19:25 |
| SS10 | Visaginas 2 | 4,16 km | 19:46 |