Before the “Aukštaitija Winter Rally” competition, there was a lot of nervousness because our winter had started making jokes again. But in the end, everything was more than great. Before the rally there was enough coldness to freeze the roads, and during the day and night the clear and cool weather made it possible to enjoy all the fun of the winter rally. Although there were 5 N5 cars on the list of participants, unfortunately, two cars less could be found in the service on the main square of Zarasai. Eugenijus Sladkevičius, Aurimas Eidžiūnas and a guest from Estonia, Jaak Tammeka, came to Zarasai to do some rallying. Aurimas and Jaak tested their cars at the tests organized on Friday, while Eugenijus Sladkevčius and Marius Kairys watched their colleagues practice near the test stage.
At dawn on Saturday, after scrutineering and reece, 4 special stages during the day and four at night awaited the participants. Eugenijus Sladkevičius in a Škoda Fabia N5+ and Aurimas Eidžiūnas in a Ford Fiesta N5 had quite a battle. The latter had Ervinas Snitkas by his side for this competition and after having done a considerable amount of training with Deividas Gezevičius, you could see a clear improvement and more precise driving style. Eugenijus and Marius, meanwhile, were extremely happy with the snow and ice-covered special stages, delighting the gathered spectators with their particularly flamboyant driving. Ramūnas Čapkauskas, who has already tried these cars a few times, joined the battle between the two N5 colleagues. The entire trio fought for fourth place in the overall standings. The guests from Estonia, Jaak Tammeka and Jaanus Virro with the Ford Fiesta N5 of Darius Biesevičius, felt quite brave during the tests, but drove a little more calmly during the rally and held on to around 20th place in the overall standings.
Once the competitors had returned to the service area after four stages, repaired their cars, and added on the night lights, the second part of the race began. Perhaps the only incident of this rally occurred after dark, unfortunately related to the N5. Aurimas Eidžiūnas and Ervinas Snitkas were unable to stay on the road in the fifth special stage and rolled slightly once and flew off the road. Fortunately, the crew was not injured and the car itself seems to be fine. After this accident, Eugenijus Sladkevičiis only had to contend with Ramūnas Čapkauskas, which he managed to do, overtaking the man from Kaunas by 17 seconds. Shortly before the award ceremony, it turned out that former N5 member Rokas Steponavičius had not shown up for the final time control, so Eugenijus and Marius moved up to third place and climbed onto the podium. The Estonian crew finished in seventeenth place.
The winter rally marathon is not over yet and next weekend we will see two representatives of N5 – Tomas Šmagarys and Linas Vaškys – at the legendary Arctic Lapland Rally 🙂
| Driver | Co-Driver | Car | Team | Class | Time | Overall | Class | |||
 | Eugenijus Sladkevičius | | Marius Kairys |  | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | AWD+ | 31:25.26 | 3 | 3 |
 | Jaak Tammeka | | Jaanus Virro |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | 7Bet Racing | AWD+ | 33:54.48 | 17 | 4 |
| Aurimas Eidžiūnas | | Ervinas Snitkas | | Ford Fiesta N5 | 7Bet Racing | AWD+ | DNF | – | – |
