The N5 crews start the third season of the Lithuanian Rally Championship. Although the Lithuanian N5 cars can be seen in various competitions not only in Lithuania, they still receive the greatest attention here and the numbers are the biggest. Of course, every season starts with a slightly different composition of the N5 community. Some crews leave, others come, but the core remains more or less the same. It is particularly pleasing that there were as many as eight N5 cars at the start of the season.
Deividas Gezevičius achieved the highest starting number. Deividas welcomes the season with some changes – an improved car, a new co-driver for some events and a new, large and professional team. Deividas will continue to drive in the LARČ1 classification, where he will be accompanied by Eugenijus Sladkevičius. There are hardly any major changes for the driver from Elektrėnai. The same Škoda Fabia N5+, the same Marius Kairys sitting next to him and the same extremely effective driving style. The company in this class for the N5 crews will be supported by an old competitor M.Judzentavičius and J.Tamašauskas, who have returned to the rally. J. Simaška will also be there for some events.
Meanwhile, there are more changes in the LARČ5 class. It is nice to see the progress of Paulius Beniušis – many rallies, many tests and he is showing really great speed. It is not for nothing that he has been given a very high tenth starting number. The Citroen C3 N5 crew is taking this season very seriously. The only interesting thing now is who will compete with him in the LARČ5 class. This will probably be Mikolaj Kempa at this rally, who, as usual, will take over a Ford Fiesta N5 from Darius Biesevičius for one competition or another. It is just not known how often Mikolaj will appear in Lithuania. Another candidate is Aurimas Eidžiūnas. Last year, the Vilnius-resident driver, who has invested a lot in himself, showed amazing speed, but then an accident in Žemaitija ruined his season. As the new Ford Puma N5 takes shape in the 8000 RPM garage, it will be interesting to see how Aurimas will manage to return to the pace he showed at the beginning of last season with the Ford Fiesta N5.
Justinas Brokorius, who has just arrived to the gang, could also become a dark horse in the LARČ5 class, having bought a championship-winning Ford Fiesta N5 car from Irmantas Buivydas. Justinas showed good results with a front-wheel drive Ford Fiesta Rally4, and as you know, the transition from such equipment to N5 is very easy. Irmantas showed that last year with this car. So it’s possible that Justinas, after warming up his legs, will soon join the battles for the highest LARČ5 positions. And there are two more crews to talk about. Rokas Markovičius has also driven many kilometers with a Hyundai i20 N5, but lately this crew has had some misfortunes. However, we hope that he and Tomas Grigonis will return to good ways in Lazdijai. Audronis Gulbinas, who had a lot of fun with his new car two weeks ago, will continue his acquaintance with the Volkswagen Polo N5. Audronis’ co-driver of many years – Vytis Paliukonis – will be sitting next to him again at the Lazdijai Rally.
Well, Lazdijai welcomes us in a slightly different format that fits into one day this year. So we can expect a very busy and interesting Saturday.
| Nr. | Driver | Co-driver | Car | Team | Class | |||
| 8. |  | Deividas Gezevičius | | Evaldas Kvederis |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | ABEPA ST-SPORT | LARČ1 |
| 10. | | Paulius Beniušis | | Kristupas Adinavičius |  | Citroen C3 N5 | ABEPA ST-SPORT | LARČ5 |
| 15. | | Eugenijus Sladkevičius | | Marius Kairys |  | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Elektrėnų ASK | LARČ1 |
| 20. |  | Mikolaj Kempa | | Andrzej Tomaszewski | | Ford Fiesta N5 | Tylko Lechia Gdańsk | LARČ5 |
| 21. | | Aurimas Eidžiūnas | | Justas Barysas | | Ford Fiesta N5 | 7Bet Racing | LARČ5 |
| 33. | | Justinas Brokorius | | Ramūnas Paškevičius | | Ford Fiesta N5 | VšĮ Ralio Ratai | LARČ5 |
| 47. | | Rokas Markovičius | | Tomas Grigonis |  | Hyundai i20 N5 | Gorilla Burgers | LARČ5 |
| 50. | | Audronis Gulbinas | | Vytis Paliukonis |  | VW Polo N5 | GSR MOTOSPORT | LARČ5 |
