It is only the beginning of July, and half of the Lithuanian Car Rally Championship has already passed as fast as the racers drove on the roads of the Lazdijai region last weekend. It is hard to say whether it was due to the increased competition, the form gained in the first events, or the desire to take advantage of the effect of the almost unknown special stages – the rally drivers drove extremely hard and fought with each other. Of course, this kind of speed tension was bound to lead somewhere bad sooner or later. And so it did.
Finally, the course of the rally was not decided on the first day, when the dust more or less dotted the i’s, leaving only a few micro duels for Saturday. It was a very different story in Lazdijai, although the rally leader had pulled away by 24 seconds after the first day. As Martynas Samsonas’ co-driver Ervinas Snitkas said – there is no “faster or slower” with Martynas. He always drives at his natural pace, and the competition with Vladas Jurkevičius and Giedrius Notkus is what makes us extremely happy. Only this time the usual triathlon was disturbed by returnees Vaidotas Žala and Martins Sesks, who used Lazdijai for training. If Samsonas Škoda Fabia N5+ is on a quite similar level compared to the R5/Rally2 technology, Vaidot Žala’s Škoda Fabia Proto was vastly superior to the previously mentioned models, without underestimating the driver himself. Martins Sesks Škoda Fabia Rally2 kit, on the other hand, is only competitive under certain conditions. How did the whole thing turn out? Vaidotas escaped, but Martynas’s speed and his team’s work allowed him to take another victory in the AWD and LARČ1 classifications, as V. Žala did not participate in the championship classifications. So this is the third victory in a row and this stability of the crew and the team leads to a single goal that a man from Utena has not yet achieved in his career. If you look at the statistics of Lithuanian rally champions, you will understand what we are talking about.
While Martynas Samsonas was fighting for the highest positions in the rally standings, his colleagues from the LARČ1 class – Eugenijus Sladkevičius and Linas Vaškys – were fighting fiercely throughout the rally. On the first day of the rally, Eugenijus gradually pulled away from Linas, but the gap narrowed to just two seconds on the final special stage. When the new morning dawned, Eugenijus was again several steps away. For Linas, a small piece of plastic stuck under the gas pedal caused some trouble and was partly responsible for almost 20 seconds behind the red Škoda Fabia N5+. After the service, the scenario from Friday repeated itself – Linas started to close the gap, but it was not enough to overtake Eugenijius, and after crossing the finish line they were separated by about six seconds.
It’s really amazing to watch the fight between two ex-M3 drivers after the change to N5. Already on the first stage it was clear that Rokas Steponavičius with Ford Fiesta N5 and Nedas Radišauskas with Volkswagen Polo N5 will play the main violins in LARČ5 ranking. Both drivers have changed cars and co-drivers, but that doesn’t stop them from driving extremely fast. It’s also very interesting to observe the analogy of the two different driving philosophies in the drivers who drive the factory equipment. Vladas Jurkevičius and Nedas Radišauskas represent the school of clean, more “circuit” driving style, while Giedrius Notkus and Roks Steponavičius represent the school of effective, expressive driving. The amazing thing is that both driving styles allow to reach extremely similar times. After the first day of the rally, Nedas and Rokas raved that it looked like they were driving for the first time and were anything but satisfied with their speed. This allowed other classmates – Paulius Beniušis and Tomas Šmagarys – to be in the middle of the fight. However, as Saturday dawned, Rokas and Nedas quickly separated themselves from the others and continued the fight not only among themselves, but also in the overall standings with representatives of other classes such as Giedrius Firantas, Marius Vėgėlė or the already mentioned Eugenijus Sladkevičius and Linas Vaškys. After Rokas Steponavičius took the first position in the LARČ5 standings from Nedas in the sixth stage, he did not let it go until the end of the rally, and the gap between them fluctuated between less than one and seven seconds after crossing the finish line. With such a pace, the duo secured seventh and eighth place in the overall standings, while overtaking many drivers with faster cars. The most important question at the moment is whether Nedas will overtake Rokas in the remaining events and whether the other LARČ5 participants will catch up with their classmates?
Rokas and Nedas, however, are not alone in the LARČ5 standings. After they ran to the front, two fights broke out between the four remaining N5 representatives – Paulius Beniušis tried to catch Tomas Šmagarys while WRC coach Kristian Sohlberg sat next to him, and Vilmantas Padegimas, who was in his home region of Dzūkija, chased Aurimas Eidžiūnas. Unfortunately, the first duel ended quite quickly. At the end of the seventh special stage, the Citroen C3 N5 of Paulius Beniušis, instead of tackling a sharp left turn at the intersection, slowly turned to the right and stopped there due to a defect in the rear reducer. Paulius’s opponent, Tomás Šmagarys, also ran out of luck quite quickly. Leaving the service station late resulted in a penalty of one and a half minutes. This was followed by a braking mistake before the speed limit zone, and finally the Hyundai i20 N5 was engulfed by a forest and a power pole in the same special stage. The most important thing is that the team remained healthy, lessons were learned and Paulius and Tomas will continue the fight with each other and with other N5 colleagues in Rokiškis.
After the recent events, the fight for third place fell into the hands of Aurimas Eižiūnas and Vilmantas Padegimas. After two-thirds of the rally, Aurimas had established a relatively safe lead of 23 seconds over Vilmantas Padegimas. However, with Vilmantas getting everything out of himself, his co-driver and the Renault Clio N5, the gap narrowed on the way to the finish, and before the final special stage, Ford and Renault and their crews were separated by just 7 seconds. According to the split times of the stage, the start of the special stage was more successful for Vilmantas, but a flight over one of the most popular jumps of this rally ended this fight. The rear of Vilmantas car tried to jump over the front on the jump giving the latter a huge blow. The car was badly damaged and Vilmantas had to drive in emergency mode to the finish, which he reached, although he lost some places in the overall standings. Meanwhile, Aurimas Eidžiūnas, although not satisfied with the crew’s work during the rally, avoided mistakes and gained the second podium in the LARČ5 standings this year.
Regardless of how one or the other battle turned out, it is extremely great that the competition, both in class and overall, forces the drivers to get everything out of themselves and their technique. In this way, they themselves become faster, the teams become more professional and the spectators are left with their mouths and eyes wide open. The next stage of the LARČ will invite us all to Rokiškis, where it will take place in the true sense of the word – an endurance rally with 15 unique speed sections and 150 sports kilometers. Before that – at the mini rally in Ukmergė – we should see at least a few N5 guys training for Rokiškis.
| Driver | Co-Driver | Car | Team | Class | Time | Overall | Class | |||
 | Martynas Samsonas | | Ervinas Snitkas |  | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | LARČ1 | 50:44.05 | 2 | 1 |
| Rokas Steponavičius | | Dovydas Ketvirtis |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | GSR Motorsport | LARČ5 | 53:01.79 | 7 | 1 |
| Nedas Radišauskas | | Justas Vičiūnas |  | VW Polo N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | LARČ5 | 53:08.96 | 8 | 2 |
| Eugenijus Sladkevičius | | Marius Kairys | | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | LARČ1 | 53:21.94 | 9 | 2 |
| Linas Vaškys | | Laurynas Paškevičius | | Škoda Fabia N5+ | ORLEN Lietuva-Mažeikių ASK | LARČ1 | 53:28.23 | 10 | 3 |
| Aurimas Eidžiūnas | | Justas Barysas | | Ford Fiesta N5 | 7Bet racing by RALLY4FUN | LARČ5 | 54:49.62 | 14 | 3 |
| Vilmantas Padegimas | | Edvardas Gurevičius |  | Renault Clio N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | LARČ5 | 55:47.72 | 17 | 4 |
| Tomas Šmagarys |  | Kristian Sohlberg |  | Hyundai i20 N5 | AUTORALIS | LARČ5 | Incidentas | – | – |
| Paulius Beniušis | | Kristupas Adinavičius |  | Citroen C3 N5 | ST-SPORT | LARČ5 | Gedimas | – | – |
