The Lithuanian Rally Championship is gradually gaining momentum. The start of the season in Mažeikiai is marked by extremely fast and dusty stages, and now action continues in Kelmė, which is not too far away. In our country, it is already the case that the start of the season in Lithuania visits the western part of Lithuania first. This time the “Žemaitija” rally will be a bit different from the last two years – the “RSMP” stage of the Polish Rally Championship will not take place in Kelmė, but there will be a few Poles and guests from other countries who want to collect points in the “Baltic Sea” Rally Cup. On the second day of the rally, the participants of the Lithuanian Rally Sprint Championship will join the main channel of the rally. All this means that the participants of the “N5” family will have many opportunities to compete not only among themselves but also with the other fast competitors from Lithuania and abroad.

M.Samsono bei E.Snitko ekipažas šįmet sunkiai pavejamas. Provokuojančiai raudona Škoda Fabia N5+ sieks trečios pergalės iš eilės :)
The crew of M.Samsonas and E.Snitkas is hard to beat this year. The provocative red Škoda Fabia N5+ will aim for the third victory in a row 🙂

In Mažeikiai we had up to ten crews with “N5+” and “N5” cars. At the rally “Žemaitija” we will have almost the same number, because there are some changes. Unfortunately, we will not see Ramūnas Čapkauskas with Tomas Šipkauskas in Kelme. The car they drove in Visaginas and Mažeikiai we should see in Žemaitija driven by its owner, Lithuanian motorsport engineer and legend Darius Biesevičius. It was Darius Biesevičius who bought the car and rented it to Ramūnas. However, when the final list of participants was announced, Darius Biesevičius’ name disappeared from the list. Let us hope that this “Ford Fiesta N5” will soon return to the rally stages with Ramūnas, Darius or another driver at the wheel. So this will be the only change in the “N5” team compared to the previous event, but we expect more of it in the future. Little by little, another Ford Fiesta N5 getting its final look. The former “Ford Fiesta N5” chassis of Martynas Samson will be filled with components of Deividas Gezevičius, the Lithuanian champion of the “2WD” class. It is still hard to say when we will see the eleventh N5 car on the stages, but we wish Deividas to finish this project as quickly and easily as possible and join the N5 guys.

L.Vaškys bei L.Paškevičius puikiai pradėjo LARČ sezoną Mažeikiuose
L. Vaškys and L. Paškevičius had a great start to the LARČ season in Mažeikiai

The crew of Martynas Samsonas and Ervinas Sniktas will start with the first number in Rally Žemaitija. The provocative red “Škoda Fabia N5+” is the fastest car so far. Martynas has to clean the road covered with fine gravel and loses time as a result, but the relatively dry weather also means that there is a lot of dust behind Martynas, which slows down the competitors driving behind him. If the weather does not change, we will probably have a similar situation in Kelmė as in Mažeikiai, where the dust will be one of the main factors deciding victory and defeat. In this case, Martynas and Ervinas are in a relatively good position.

The start and the end of the last rally was extremely unfortunate for the crew of E. Sladkevičius and M. Kairys

The other two “Škoda Fabia N5+”, belonging to the “LARČ1” class and driven by Linas Vaškys and Eugenijus Sladkevičius, who had a different fate in Mažeikiai, will again try to finish among the top three in the overall standings. The fight for the podium will be even tougher in Žemaitija, as multiple Finnish champion Teemu Asunmaa will be driving the car designed by Mindaugas Varža, so the top three will certainly not stay in contention for long.

Iš BMW M3 peršokęs ir šturmaną pakeitęs N.Radišauskas naujame autombilyje jaučiasi itin komfortiškai ir pirmauja LARČ5 įskaitoje
N. Radišauskas, who jumped off the BMW M3 and changed co-driver, feels very comfortable in the new car and leads the LARČ5 standings

Perhaps the biggest battle of the rally awaits us in the “N5” (LARČ5) class, where no less than seven crews will compete. After the first event, Nedas Radišauskas will play first fiddle with Justas Vičiūnas and the “Volkswagen Polo N5”, which won among the “N5” cars both in the pre-season rally in Visaginas and in the first stage of the LARČ in Mažeikiai, leading the LARČ5 standings. Since we will not see the crew of Ramūnas Čapkauskas at the Žemaitija rally, the biggest competition for Nedas is likely to be the crew of Rokas Steponavičius and Dovydas Ketvirtis with the Ford Fiesta N5, whose performance in Mažeikiai ended after a turbine failure. In the LARČ5 classification, Aurimas Eidžiūnas was the third driver to open up points accounts in LARČ5 standings. The other three cars and their crews spent a short time between the first and second event in the garages to fix the problems on their cars that prevented them from finishing the first event in Mažeikiai. So we will wait again for Tomas Šmagarys, Paulius Beniušis and Vilmantas Padegimas to start the fight with the other participants of the “N5” class.

R.Steponavičius buvo LARČ5 lyderis Mažeikiuose iki nelemto turbinos gedimo
R. Steponavičius was leading the LARČ5 standings in Mažeikiai until unfortunate turbine failure

Nine “N5+” and “N5” cars are waiting for 112 sporty kilometers spread over two days. On Friday, the start will be in the evening, which will take a long time, because there will be 4 stages during the day and 2 in the black night. As it is now getting dark very late, the participants will start the last stage on Friday almost at the beginning of Saturday. The extremely long Friday will be compensated by a rather late start on Saturday. The second day of the rally also consists of six stages.

A.Eidžiūnas pasiekęs LARČ5 podiumą Mažeikiuose sieks ir toliau didinti savo taškų kraitį
After standing on the LARČ5 podium in Mažeikiai, A. Eidžiūnas will try to improve his result further
Kaip ir dar trys ekipažai, T.Šmagarys Žemaitijoje bandys reabilituotis po nefinišuoto Mažeikių etapo
Like three other teams, T. Šmagarys will try to redeem himself after the Mažeikiai event in Žemaitija that was not finished
Vilmantui Padegimui Žemaitijos bus jau net aštuntos varžybos šiemet.
For Vilmantas Padegimas Žemaitija is already the eighth competition this year.
Kol kas P.Beniušiui automobilio problemos kliudo pasiekti finišą.
P. Beniušis’ car problems prevent him from reaching the finish for the time being.
Nr.DriverCo-driverCarTeamClass
1.Martynas SamsonasErvinas SnitkasŠkoda Fabia N5+Samsonas MotorsportLARČ1
5.Linas VaškysLaurynas PaškevičiusŠkoda Fabia N5+ORLEN Lietuva-Mažeikių ASKLARČ1
6.Eugenijus SladkevičiusMarius KairysŠkoda Fabia N5+Samsonas MotorsportLARČ1
8.Rokas SteponavičiusDovydas KetvirtisFord Fiesta N5GSR MotorsportLARČ5
9.Nedas RadišauskasJustas VičiūnasVW Polo N5AutoralisLARČ5
20.Paulius BeniušisKristupas AdinavičiusCitroen C3 N5ST-SPORTLARČ5
21.Tomas ŠmagarysValdas ČiuplysHyundai i20 N5AutoralisLARČ5
22.Aurimas EidžiūnasJustas BarysasFord Fiesta N57Bet racing by RALLY4FUNLARČ5
23.Vilmantas PadegimasEdvardas GurevičiusRenault Clio N5Samsonas MotorsportLARČ5

„Rally Žemaitija“ 2023 itinerary

June 2nd, Friday
SS1KIA7,98 km18:20
SS2Mondadalis.lt12,91 km18:50
SS3Pakelo7,98 km19:45
SS4Drange.lt12,91 km20:15
Service zone (Kelmė)0:45 min
SS5RADIOCENTRAS4,81 km23:25
SS615 MIN6,01 km23:50
June 3rd, Saturday
Service zone (Kelmė)0:45 min
SS7Aliplast Baltic8,59 km11:10
SS8Aztec Oil11,88 km11:45
Service zone (Kelmė)0:30 min
SS9FitNFood8,82 km14:55
SS10Mano Garažas10,93 km15:25
SS11C48,82 km16:25
SS12Tomui10,93 km16:55

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