Last Saturday finally opened the summer rally season. Although we had the stage of the Lithuanian Rally Sprint Championship in Zarasai in winter, there were still a lot of empty boxes on the calendar until spring. Two weeks of testing have already allowed us to get back into the spirit of the rally, but the almost one-kilometer-long service area in Visaginas and the 70+ cars running on the gravel stages surrounding Visaginas is still what we have all been waiting for.
Visaginas has been bustling since early Saturday morning. With almost all the formalities and the race itself taking place in one day, the Saturday of the rally was particularly drawn out for many. Especially for those who were on the podium. However, the excellent, warm, sunny weather and the great competition did not allow to fall asleep. The participants were awaited by 4 gravel special stages, each of which was driven twice with the last tarmac section in the evening in the town of Visaginas, which was also driven twice, only on the principle of a carousel.
Škoda Fabia N5+” marked by number one and driven by Martynas Samsonas, was the winning car. Competitors only saw the back of it. Martynas left no hopes, as he was in excellent shape and could hear his co-driver Ervinas perfectly with the new intercom equipment. The man from Utena won all the gravel stages and was only just beaten by the competition on the two city tarmac stages. The other two Škoda Fabia N5+, unfortunately, did not reach the finish due to technical defects. The retirement of Eugenijus Sladkevičius and Marius Kairys was particularly disappointing. The bright red’ Škoda Fabia N5+, which was in fourth place, stopped with only one special stage to go, when the alternator belt fell off. Linas Vaškys took fifth place after the first section of the rally, but after leaving the service area Linas did not go far. So the results of the “N5+” cars are double – one victory and two retirements. However, it is better to let these problems occur in practice rallies and not in the first event of the championship.
Not so powerfull – the “N5” car squad consisted of five crews. Among them were both those who had already made friends with the new technology and newcomers to “N5”. The gravel roads of Visaginas proved to be the friendliest for the two newcomers. Although Nedas Radišauskas in his new VW Polo N5 probably lacked power after his switch from the BMW M3, the comfort and precision of the N5 cars made up for the lack of horsepower. Nedas was involved in a three-way battle with other N5 crews. It was a battle until the last special stage. Nedas was chasing Eugenijus Sladkevičius, and Ramūnas Čapkauskas was chasing Ned Radišauskas. After Eugenijus Sladkevičius retirement in the last stage, Nedas Radišauskas and Justas Vičiūnas jumped to fourth place overall. Ramūnas Čapkauskas, an expert on this tarmac, chased Nedas, especially on the last city stage, but in the end he was six seconds slower than the white VW Polo N5. After the rally, Ramūnas was extremely satisfied with the Ford Fiesta N5 rented by Darius Biesevičius. After switching from the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, which is quite difficult to drive, to the Ford Fiesta N5, which has excellent braking and very fast cornering, Ramūnas remembered his time in circuit races, where precise driving is most important to achieve a result. We hope that the competition in the class and the technology of the “N5” impressed Ramūnas so much that he will become a permanent member of the “N5” team. The Citroen C3 N5 driven by Paulius Beniušis came very close to the aforementioned trio. It was also his first official rally with the N5 car. However, a technical defect marred what appeared to be a perfect debut. Aurimas Eidžiūnas was less than three seconds short of the top ten in the Ford Fiesta N5, which had only recently been rebuilt after an incident in Spain. Twenty seconds behind him, Vilmantas Padegimas ended up in a fourteenth place with his Renault Clio N5. This southern Lithuanian was prevented from achieving a better result by a flat tire, as it was only running on three wheels in one stage. Nevertheless, Vilmantas feels more and more comfortable in the new car, which is reflected in the results and driving style. In general, the roads of Visaginas, especially when driven for the second time, were not of the best quality and caused problems for many cars.
So the season was opened with the victory of the “N5” team. In two weeks, everyone will gather in the northwest of Lithuania, where near Viekšniai and Mažeikiai the start of the Lithuanian rally championship will take place. There, the competition will be even greater, because the entire elite of the Lithuanian rally will gather there, and there should be fast guests for the training before the Polish ERC event. At the moment we have nine crews representing “N5” and “N5+” classes on the list of participants in “Orlen Lietuva Rally”. Maybe there will be more? We will see 🙂
| Driver | Co-driver | Car | Team | Class | Time | Overall | Class | |||
 | Martynas Samsonas | | Ervinas Snitkas |  | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | AWD+ | 28:33.00 | 1 | 1 |
| Nedas Radišauskas | | Justas Vičiūnas |  | VW Polo N5 | Autoralis | AWD+ | 30:42.50 | 4 | 3 |
| Ramūnas Čapkauskas | | Titas Čapkauskas |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | Čapkauskas Autocentras Team | AWD+ | 30:48.50 | 5 | 4 |
| Aurimas Eidžiūnas | | Justas Barysas | | Ford Fiesta N5 | 7Bet racing by RALLY4FUN | AWD+ | 32:12.90 | 11 | 5 |
| Vilmantas Padegimas | | Edvardas Gurevičius |  | Renault Clio N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | AWD+ | 32:32.70 | 14 | 7 |
| Eugenijus Sladkevičius | | Marius Kairys | | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | AWD+ | Tech. gedimas | – | – |
| Paulius Beniušis | | Kristupas Adinavičius |  | Citroen C3 N5 | ST-SPORT | AWD+ | Tech. gedimas | – | – |
| Linas Vaškys | | Laurynas Paškevičius | | Škoda Fabia N5+ | ORLEN Lietuva-Mažeikių ASK | AWD+ | Tech. gedimas | – | – |