V.Žala and A.Malniekas won a rally after cutting some grass

At approximately 9 pm on the GAZAS portal 15min see the live broadcast of the awards. The event may be delayed due to the delay of the last speed sections.

V.Žala, talking about the competitive fight before the rally, named two riders that he was preparing to race from. It’s about Martynas Samsonas and Ervinas Snitkas, who have been very fast lately. And Werry driver Valery Gorort with his co-driver S. Larens.

You can find a description of the rally by speed sections and streaming videos here.

Results

However, the city’s first asphalt section in Kelmė on Friday showed that the fight will not be easy. Vaidotas drove carefully on the asphalt, finishing only sixth. The fastest of the Lithuanians, Dominykas Butvilas, is fifth.

And although the first arena on Saturday (GR3) was won only by Dominykas Butvilas, Vaidotas, who returned to the rally last year, according to Saulius Jurgelėnas, I soon woke up and it started Drive at your own pace.

He was the fastest since the GR4 in all stages except the GR10, where Martin Samson triumphed.

Not only V.Žala and M.Samsonas surprised with speed and stability, but also Valdas Jurkevičius (co-driver Aisvydas Paliukėnas), who is improving very fast. And V. Gorban, who was racing in the most powerful WRC car, obviously had to drive. In some sections he was also overtaken by Poles with cars of the R5 class, although they are more used to the asphalt. But in the second half of the rally, Valery climbed higher and higher. So it looks like “Samsonas Rally Rokiškis” will have an interesting duel between Vaidotas and Valerijus – precision versus power.

And Giedrius Notkus, the Lithuanian rally champion, who switched from Mitsubishi to the Škoda Fabia R5, obviously has to get used to the car, although the pace is really good. In the second part of the rally, he was faster than Dominic Butville.

The Mitsubishi EVO IX boats handled the rally beautifully. Vytautas Švedas was driving so aggressively that he released the handbrake. Ramūnas Čapkauskas started this year not with his son Titus so as not to “feel like a father” in the rally and to think more about speed. Of course, even for facilitators along the Fighting the R5 army was not easy. But he managed to overtake more than one.

Runners’ Comments

The crews that fought for second place – Martynas Samsonas, Vladas Jurkevičius and Dominykas Butvilas – changed places several times during the rally. Second and fourth places in the general classification were awarded for a total of 28 seconds.

The performance of the crew of Vladas Jurkevičius and Aisvydas Paliukėnas came as a surprise to many.

“Vlad is very successful in enduring a lot of stress, although such short distances from the titled competitors and the favorites of this race are something new for our crew. Last year, while driving in the R2 class, we did not experience any of that”, A Paliukėnas shared her impressions.

Buttel, who stayed in fourth place and rejoiced in the racing world last year after a hiatus of nearly two years, was also pleased with the fierce competition.

“I find it hard to remember that such a tense fight would take place during all the stages of the Lithuanian championship during my sports career. The level of rivals has risen incredibly. Until the last few meters, it is unclear how things will end. In this sense, it is definitely one of the best races I have ever participated in ”, praised D. Butvilas for the action on the track.

The extraordinary landing of the Polish teams – 38 crews fought on the external stage of the auto-championship – became a true decoration of the race. However, the guests in Samogitia, used to fighting on asphalt tracks, could not resist the Lithuanians more seriously. Miko Marczyk with Szymon Gospodarczyk is called the Wunderkind of the Polish Rally ranked fifth, 1 minute 4 seconds behind the winner. But the fight between the leaders of the Polish championship was also frantically tense and exciting.

Valerius Gorban and Sergei Larens, who were driving the WRC car, reached the seventh finish. Guests from Ukraine admitted that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they had not been able to compete at a level as high as the Samogitia Rally for almost a year and a half, so it was quite difficult to keep up. However, they managed to get the second best result in at least two speed sections.

This year’s Žemaitija Rally stood out in two other ways. Of the 110 crews that joined the starting line, only 15 did not reach the finish line. This unusually small number of breakdowns and incidents allows us to make assumptions about the excellent preparation of the athletes and their rational behavior on the track.

There were no shortages and accidents

Unfortunately, 17 teams did not finish in this rally due to accidents and technical failures. Once again technical problems plagued Lithuanian rally champion Karolis Raišis. A damaged engine on a fast stretch and an exploding oil cooler caused a fire. It is true that the car caught fire with Karolis and Ilya Zakman already after leaving the car and going around the corner to admire the rally. Fortunately, the judges were present and the BMW Alpina was turned off.

The next stage of the Lithuanian Rally Championship is the “Rally Viekšniai” on July 9.