We continue our acquaintance with the members of the N5 family, also known as – “N5 Gang” 🙂
In winter we talked with Tomas Šmagarys, recently Aurimas Eidžiūnas and now with Rokas Steponavičius, who exchanged his BMW M3 for a Ford Fiesta N5 and joined the N5 gang 🙂
Rokas, how did you get into the rally discipline? What attracted you to it?
Watching your father race since childhood and spending time with him in various competitions, the attraction to racing and sports cars comes naturally, but basically the roots of motorsport in our family go back to my grandfather – he also raced.
Rallying is the king of all motorsports, it fascinates me because of its complexity. Here you have to be able to do everything – write down pacenotes, understand what you have written down, scan the road, improvise, communicate to the co-driver, trust him and his team.
Did you start right away with a very fun and powerful machine – the BMW M3?
You are wrong 🙂 It started with recreational go-karts, then autocross in the junior class, then came puberty, which was rebellious and therefore I had to sit on the “bench” for a while and watch everything from the sidelines 🙂
The real motorsport started with circuit racing. I did one season of circuit racing with a BMW and a prototype, but my heart beat for rallying. The first rally I started with a Ford Escort RS2000, later we converted the BMW E36 Compact we had for rallying, with which we wanted to start the way of rally drivers. Since neither the driver nor the co-driver had any experience, we decided to drive as a “course car” crew for a year and gain experience.
The first event of the main Lithuania rally championship was a winter rally with the same BMW, which had a 2.8l engine. Ernesta and I achieved a great result in this rally. We drove a similar pace as K.Raišys with a BMW M3, and you can understand what is going on in the mind of a young sportsman. It seems that you are the toughest, because if you did well with a weak car, you will do wonders with a strong one 🙂 In the break before the gravel event we built a BMW E46 M3 and started in the Žemaitija rally. It was only then that my eyes were opened to the fact that the rally is not a drag race and that in order to drive at a high pace and not make mistakes, you need a lot of work, not just a BMW M3 with a strong engine.
After 7 years you moved to the N5 class. Why did you decide to change car?
I have always silently dreamed of a car with all-wheel drive, and sometimes, when the stars are favourable, dreams come true… But on the other hand, Martynas Samsonas has done a great job for the emergence of the N5 class – you just have to bow to him for bringing this class to the Lithuanian Rally Championship. These cars greatly enlivens the fleet of rally cars, are attractive to the eyes of spectators and partners, and certainly creates a healthy, even and very beautiful fight.
Usually your rally program didn’t last a whole season. Why is that? Don’t you strive for titles?
My work programs have always overlapped with the championship events, so my rally appearances have been episodic. Only last season, thanks to a favorable calendar, I managed to drive almost all rally events with Karolis. However, we decided not to sign up for the championship, so we didn’t become champions. But basically I don’t need titles – rallying is a pleasure for me, as long as I’m happy, I’ll do it.
How involved is your family in rallying?
As I mentioned, my grandfather participated, my father and Ernesta’s father also drove, so of course we’re involved here as well. Brother Lukas is also very involved in motorsport, he participated in the Fia Rally Star program and did very well. I do not rule out that one day we will see him behind the wheel in rally competitions.
And for now, I am very happy that Lukas is taking excellent care of my sports car and helping me reach the finish line with the help of others. I am very grateful to everyone who helps, contributes and supports!!!
With the new car there was also a new co-driver – Dovydas Ketvirtis. How did you get along?
I will say frankly, when Dovydas appeared in our team, there was no plan to start together in the rally, because for Dovydas as a driver there was only a circuit racing program.
But life happened, Dovydas made no plans with the driver of the previous crew, so he offered to join the rally discipline as well.
We have many things in common with him, we do what we like and we do not push ourselves into limits, we try to get as much pleasure and good feelings as possible from what we do. I have full confidence in him as a co-driver, I can understand him, we have a good feeling in the crew.
And we will no longer be professionals, so we drive “for fun” 😉
In addition to rallying, you are also known in the discipline of circuit racing. How do rallying and circuit racing complement each other in your career?
Circuit racing is a bit more precise, it’s all about millimeters on the track and in the car there, and centimeters in rally racing 😉 Circuit racing helps to find the right trajectories in rallying, and in circuit racing, rallying gives the confidence to control the car in special situations.
You drive under the banner of “GSR Motorsport”. How did this team come about and what does it do outside of rallying? What does it consist of?
GSR has been around for a long time, almost 12 years. When Ernesta and I met, we both owned sports cars, raced them and paid others to maintain them, and we were not satisfied with the results. So the idea was born to start something of our own. Little by little we grew, improved and expanded. That’s why I am very happy that the idea, which was once born in a small garage, has become a really big team. Now we maintain and care for many circuit and rally cars, train, share experiences, educate and try to help new people develop.
Just this year you started to do more rallying abroad. Where else are you planning to go this year? Or which rallies would you like to visit or what are your dreams?
Foreign countries are always tempting, I would rather choose one stage abroad than two stages in our country. I just think that you gain more experience abroad.
We are talking with the “N5 “gang” about possible starts abroad, and maybe you will see some crews somewhere else 🙂
I would really like to do some kind of rally in Finland – fly over the jumps and gain endless experience 🙂 It would also be interesting to race in Portugal, maybe return to Spain – after all, we still have an unfinished business there 😀
How important is the simulator for your progress/maintenance in rally form?
The simulator helps me keep my subconscious active for certain movements and actions, keeps my hands fast and that’s better than nothing anyway 😉
Rokas Steponavičius starts in 2023
| Rally | Co-Driver | Car | Team | Class | Results overall / Class | |||
 | Rally Žemaitija | | Dovydas Ketvirtis |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | GSR Motorsport | LARČ5 | 5 (1) |
| ORLEN Lietuva Rally | | Dovydas Ketvirtis | | Ford Fiesta N5 | GSR Motorsport | LARČ5 | Turbo failure |
 | Rally da Auga | | Dovydas Ketvirtis | | Ford Fiesta N5 | N5 LTU | 1 | Incident |
 | Rally Alūksne | | Karolis Gedgaudas | | Ford Fiesta N5 | GSR Motorsport | LRC1 | 12 (3) |
| 7bet Winter Rally Aukštaitija | | Dovydas Ketvirtis | | Ford Fiesta N5 | GSR Motorsport | AWD+ | 2 (2) |
 | Otepaa Talveralli | | Dovydas Ketvirtis | | Ford Fiesta N5 | GSR Motorsport | EMV1 | 13 (2) |
