The second half of the Lithuanian Rally Championship starts in Rokiškis, which has already become a legendary rally. This year, as usual, nine cars of class N5 will come to this event called survival rally. The only change is that Vilmantas Padegimas with his Renault Clio N5 will not be present in this class, but the long-awaited debut of David Gezevičius with his Ford Fiesta N5 will happen. Everyone is preparing for a competition of such complexity because 142 kilometers of special stages are waiting for everyone, many of which will be unique. The organizers of the Rokiškis Rally have set the bar extremely high for themselves and others, because in the history of independent Lithuania there has never been a classic rally with 15 unique special stages. This number means that from the very first time, the crews have to drive stages as best as they can. Also, very long and intensive reece will wait for drivers and co-drivers too.
Martynas Samsonas is very happy that “CBet Rally Rokiškis” is making maximum efforts to raise the Lithuanian rally to an even higher level.
“I said that I want the conditions to be always the most difficult, there should be always new stages and everything takes place at night, rain and thunderstorms. The bigger the nightmare, the better. If seriously, a rally should be such that you have to drive through unknown special stages, and only once. Of course, it’s not easy to find these new gravel roads, there are really only a few of them”
Martynas Samsonas
Eugenijus Sladkevičius and Linas Vaškys with the other Škoda Fabia N5+ cars of the LARČ1 classification will try to keep up with Martynas and also keep the weaker N5 crews behind them. These two guys are involved in a battle for 2nd place in the LARČ1 standings, and Eugenijus and Marius have the better positions now.
One of the biggest intrigues is the fight for the LARČ5 championship title, to which Nedas Radišauskas and Rokas Steponavičius spur each other on to become faster and faster.
“The atmosphere is great, I am looking forward to the rally like I used to look forward to Christmas. With Rokas we have a friendly and healthy competition, we spur each other on to go as fast as possible, and we are very happy with the result.”
Nedas Radišauskas
On the other side of the battlefield, the mood is a little different at the moment.
“I am not in a good mood right now because my back hurts a lot. I am trying to recover with medication, and then I will make a decision about participating in the rally. The rally is long, so we will try to be as fast as possible because we have no other chance to fight for the class championship. I hope to see you at the rally, and if not, I will still support my classmates and especially Nedas!”
Rokas Steponavičius
Before the start of the season, many predicted that another driver besides Rokas and Nedas would claim the title of the fastest N5 crew, but the Ford Fiesta N5, which only takes its final shape in the evenings, nights, and on the weekends, will not appear until next weekend. Absolute 2WD class champion 2020 Deividas Gezevičius will sit behind it.
“The main goal is to finally test the newly assembled car. We’ll test how everything works on Friday, and maybe we will push on Saturday to see where we are roughly in terms of speed. There were thoughts of postponing the start, but with the help of all the people around me, the dream will come true at Rokiškis, which I am very happy about.”
Deividas Gezevičius
Deividas, who jumped on the N5 train late, will be tested by Paulius Beniušis and Tomas Šmagarys, who are aiming to get closer to the class lead.
“The attitude towards the Rokiškis rally is very conservative. Kristupas and I are in good shape, we have a well-balanced and tuned car, and we had a dozen test kilometers before the rally. We managed to avoid problems, so we will come to Rokiškis well prepared and ambitious to take on the class leaders”
Paulius Beniušis
At least at the Rokiškis Rally, Aurimas Eidžiūnas will not have his main competitor in the N5 class – Vilmantas Padegimas, who hopefully has only briefly returned to the Historic class Toyota Celica. Therefore, Aurimas is preparing very actively and responsibly for the “CBet Rally Rokiškis” competition, where he will have to catch up with Paulius Beniušis, Tomas Šmagarys, and others.
“The mood is good, we have a preparation plan that includes exercises for reece and possible test sessions. In the last two weeks we have been working on physical preparation, inspired mainly by the “Samsonas Racefit Challenge” that took place. I think it will be the most difficult rally of the season for the crews, the car and the mechanics.”
Aurimas Eidžiūnas
LARČ1 standings
LARČ5 standings
| Nr. | Driver | Co-Driver | Car | Team | Class | |||
| 2. |  | Martynas Samsonas | | Ervinas Snitkas |  | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | LARČ1 |
| 6. | | Rokas Steponavičius | | Dovydas Ketvirtis |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | ST-SPORT | LARČ5 |
| 7. | | Nedas Radišauskas | | Justas Vičiūnas |  | VW Polo N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | LARČ5 |
| 8. | | Eugenijus Sladkevičius | | Marius Kairys | | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | LARČ1 |
| 11. | | Linas Vaškys | | Laurynas Paškevičius | | Škoda Fabia N5+ | ORLEN Lietuva-Mažeikių ASK | LARČ1 |
| 15. | | Paulius Beniušis | | Kristupas Adinavičius |  | Citroen C3 N5 | ST-SPORT | LARČ5 |
| 16. | | Tomas Šmagarys | | Valdas Čiuplys |  | Hyundai i20 N5 | Autoralis | LARČ5 |
| 17. | | Aurimas Eidžiūnas | | Justas Barysas | | Ford Fiesta N5 | 7Bet racing by RALLY4FUN | LARČ5 |
| 22. | | Deividas Gezevičius | | Tomas Nenartavičius | | Ford Fiesta N5 | Nordis racing team | LARČ5 |