Some of the participants of the Samsonas Rally Utena probably did not even unload some of their belongings after the rally, because almost immediately they started preparations for the next trip – to the famous island of Saaremaa, which belongs to Estonia. This rally is the epilogue of the rally season in Baltic states. Although there are still some competitions in late autumn, the serious rally season in our region ended during the Saaremaa Rally. It is rare that this rally remains without Lithuanians, but what happened this year… No less than thirteen Lithuanian crews have registered for this autumn festival in Estonia. Among them 6 N5 cars from Lithuania and one from Finland. The Lithuanian Ford Fiesta N5 will be driven by the well-known Pole Mikolaj Kempa, who has already participated in several events of the Lithuanian Mini Rally with this car.
The competition itself begins on Friday evening, already after dark. Three special stages await the participants – two long ones of 12.86 km and 8.50 km, as well as a 2.59 Super special stage around Kuresare Castle, which will end Friday’s race. There will be some asphalt sections in these sections. On Saturday, 101 sports kilometers and nine special stages await the crews. They range from 8 to 21 km in length, apart from the two SSs on the special 2.29 km Orikuela track, where two cars will be running at a time. What makes Rally Saaremaa special is that the terrain here is extremely flat and there are almost no natural jumps. There are also wooded, fast but narrow areas that transition into more open fields with a series of very long turns that are quite a challenge to drive properly, often leading to driving errors. The ground there is firm, so it can withstand nearly 200 cars driving twice. Finally, the rally takes place in autumn, so rain is a common phenomenon there, which makes those roads extremely slippery.
Martynas and Ervin go to Estonia having thrown off all the burdens due to the results in Lithuania, but with an increased desire to go through the special stages. Having covered only a third of the distance in Utena, the crew of Samsonas Motorsport will try to accumulate sporting autumn kilometers in Estonia. This crew has finally been given a normal starting number, as last year they were relegated to the bottom fifty, from which they successfully worked their way up to eleventh overall in the BMW M3. This time they got the number nine, and the equipment they bring is more serious this year.
LARČ5 champions Nedas Radišauskas and Justas Vičiūnas start right behind Martynas and Ervinass. The paradox is that his direct competitor in Lithuania – Rokas Steponavičius, the organizer of the Saarema Rally, is pushed to the middle of the starting grid and wears the number 69. But as news hit – Rokas will not start. A number of well-known Estonian racers as well as FIA Rally Star participants will start behind Nedas and Justas, so it will not take long for the Lithuanians to get motivated. For Nedas it is the first time he is competing here, and do-driver Justas Vičiūnas took part in this race two years ago together with Eugenijus Sladkevičius.
Linas Vaškys and Laurynas Paškevičius received the seventeenth number. Linas and Laurynas have already visited this island twice, but… These visits took place in 2008 and 2009, fourteen years ago, when they were still driving Renault Clio cars. Therefore, it is not known to what extent Linas and Laurynas remember the intricacies of the roads of this island, but this crew arrives in Saaremaa in a good mood. They finished the Samsonas Rally Utena competition very confidently, improving their positions in both the LARČ1 and the general 4WD standings in Lithuania.
Poles Mikolaj Kempa and Marcin Szeja start right behind Linas and Laurynas in the eighteenth position. Having tested Darius Biesevičius’s Ford Fiesta N5 loan car in the Mini Rally earlier this year, Mikolaj immediately fell in love with it. Another start and win in the Lithuanian Mini Rally Championship followed, and last week, when everyone was training for the Utena Rally, Mikolaj tested before Saaremaa during a visit to the Rokiškis district. Mikolaj has already been to this island three times – 2019, 2020 and 2021, and the best results are tenth and seventh place overall, so this year we can expect a really good result from the Pole.
The red Škoda Fabia N5+ of Eugenijus Sladkevičius and Marius Kairys bears the number twenty. Before leaving for Estonia, Eugenijus had to do some work on the car, as the crew did not finished in the Samsonas Rally Utena competition due to a technical defect. It will be Eugenijus’ second participation in this rally – two years ago he drove here with Nedas Radišauskas’ current co-driver, Justas Vičiūnas. Unfortunately, they could not reach the finish line – the gearbox of their Mitsubishi Mirage Proto broke down. Until then they were in the 22nd place.
Another N5 car, whose model we have not yet seen in Lithuania, will start right behind Eugenijus and Marius. It is the Kia Rio N5 driven by Tomi Roennemaa and Tero Roennemaa. This family crew has been driving N5 in Finland for two years, but not in the main Finnish championship, but in F-Cup and other regional competitions. Undoubtedly, Timo has most experience on this island. For the Finn, it will be the fifteenth start in this rally since 2006. However, Tomi last raced here in 2019 and achieved the best result with the Škoda Fabia R5 – 12th place overall.
Well, for some inexplicable reason, Rokas Steopnavičius and Dovydas Ketvirtis were relegated to 69th place on the start list. And this is not the only Estonian decision that is difficult to understand – we can boast that in Lithuania these things are handled much more responsibly. It did not help Rokas and Dovydas that they finished in a really good 11th place overall in the Otepaa Talveralli held in winter. However, according to the latest news, we will not see this team in Estonia this weekend. Those who saw how Rokas and Dovydas’ car flew in the last rally will understand that Rokas back did not like those jumps to say the least. Therefore, Rokas decided to take it easy on his back and skip this rally.
Saaremaa Rally program
| Nr. | Car | Co-driver | Car | Team | Class | |||
| 9. |  | Martynas Samsonas | | Ervinas Snitkas |  | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | EMV1 |
| 10. | | Nedas Radišauskas | | Justas Vičiūnas |  | VW Polo N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | EMV1 |
| 17. | | Linas Vaškys | | Laurynas Paškevičius | | Škoda Fabia N5+ | ORLEN Lietuva-Mažeikių ASK | EMV1 |
| 18. |  | Mikolaj Kempa | | Marcin Szeja |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | EMV1 | |
| 20. | | Eugenijus Sladkevičius | | Marius Kairys | | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | EMV1 |
| 21. |  | Tomi Rönnemaa | | Tero Rönnemaa |  | Kia Rio N5 | EMV1 | |
| 69. | | Rokas Steponavičius | | Dovydas Ketvirtis | | Ford Fiesta N5 | GSR Motorsport | EMV1 |