A few weeks before the fourth stage of the Lithuanian Rally Championship in Rokiškis, three crews with N5 cars thought of driving on the roads of the Ukmergė district, where the stage of the Lithuanian Mini Rally Championship was held – Rally Ukmergė 2023. It was a new name in the Lithuanian rally calendar, but the organizers immediately set a very high bar both for themselves and for the other events of the Mini Rally. Excellent communication, service in the heart of Ukmergė, particularly difficult special stages, and record mileage. It is not surprising that all this attracted a very large number of participants and guests to this rally.
Three N5 cars arrived in Ukmerge – two Ford Fiesta N5s and one Renault Clio N5. All their crews had different plans for Saturday. Vilmantas Padegimas and Edvardas Gurevičius continued to tirelessly race in the Clio, Rokas Steponavičius’ co-driver Dovydas Ketvirtis was eventually persuaded to get behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta N5, and Darius Biesevičius was moved out of his own car by a neighbor from Poland, Mikołaj Kempa, who had rented Darius’ Ford Fiesta to get some training after a long break.
Nine special stages awaited the participants, covering a total of forty sports kilometers. The roads around Ukmergė offered both fast and technical sections in open and heavily wooded areas. As it turned out, this was one of the most difficult stages of the mini-rally, with extremely treacherous roads that challenged more than one crew. Since this was a mini-rally event, chicanes were included in the faster sections. Right from the start, the crew of Vilmantas Padegimas and Edvardas Gurevičius took the initiative. Fast and precise driving gave the competitors no chance – seven of the nine special stages were won and a fairly solid lead was established before the final stage. But in the middle of the ninth SS, the Renault Clio N5, which was a little too close to the edge of the road, got a little in the way of a firmly rooted tree stump. The impact was so strong that the crew could see the car’s shock absorber before they got out of the car. Unfortunately, a few centimeters were fatal and the crew had to lay down their arms a few kilometers from victory.
While Vilmantas won seven stages, Mikołaj Kempa and Sebastian Wach were the fastest on the other two. The Polish crew gradually got used to the car and confidently drove to second place overall and in the guest classification. Although Mikołaj had some experience with N5 car, the Ford Fiesta N5 left a good impression on him and hopefully this will not be his last start. In the end, the disaster of Vilmantas Padegimas became the guests’ luck – after Vilmantas’ retirement in the last special stage, Mikołaj Kempa and Sebastian Wach became the winners of the “Rally Ukmergė 2023”. They overtook the owner of the car, Darius Biesevičius, by almost half a minute, who had to drive his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.
Pirmą kartą už Ford Fiesta N5 vairo startavusiam Dovydui Ketvirčiui finišą sutrukdė pasiekti septinto greičio ruožo starte nusuktas automobilio pusašis. Dovydas su į šturmano kėdę sėdusiu Roku Steponavičiumi po truputį vis greitėjo ir drąsėjo, o laikai vis arčiau artėjo Top10. Tikimės, kad tai nepaskutinis Dovydo pasivažinėjimas žvyrine danga.
| Driver | Co-driver | Car | Team | Class | Time | Overall | Class | |||
 | Mikołaj Kempa | | Sebastian Wach |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | Sebastian Wach | Guest | 29:07:5 | 1 | 1 |
 | Dovydas Ketvirtis | | Rokas Steponavičius | | Ford Fiesta N5 | GSR Motorsport | Guest | Tech. failure | – | – |
| Vilmantas Padegimas | | Edvardas Gurevičius |  | Renault Clio N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | Guest | Incident | – | – |
