The winter fun in the Baltic States is over – the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian championships are ending the winter cycle and waiting for the summer. Only the Finns will have a third winter event in March. The Sarma Rally had all the necessary conditions – it was cold, the roads were as icy as could be, and there was so much snow next to the road that it was difficult for both the competitors and the spectators. The special stages were very fast, but at the same time extremely technical. Those who lacked precision were quickly swallowed up by the large side ditches.
As mentioned in the prologue, the format of the rally was very compact. Three 15km long stages, a short service zone, and then the same three SS again. Vaidotas Paškevičius with Dalius Strižanas and Ford Fiesta N5 drove all six special stages very confidently. While Vaidotas learned to understand the intricacies of handling the N5 on snow, Dalius gave useful advice about pacenotes. The crew stayed in the top ten throughout the rally, and the final push in the last stage allowed the Lithuanians to move up to ninth place overall. A great result.
The guests from Finland, Saku Vierimaa and Mika Rajasalo, also drove very consistently. However, it turned out that Saku bought a Peugeot 208 N5 and plans to visit the “Samsonas Rally Utena” competition with it. In the meantime, everything would have gone great in Latvia, just like for Vaidotas Paškevičius, but in the second special stage, the Finns went off the road a little and got stuck in the snow. The rescue operation took about fourteen minutes, so the crew drove went down in the leaderboard. Despite the mistake, Saku and Mika found their rhythm again in the remaining stages and rode at a similar pace to the Lithuanians. Saku himself tells us briefly about this rally:
I bought the car from Jaakko Lavio. Rally itself was winter rally as its best. The roada were quick and challenging. Service park without any services was not nice. We knew that local competition is very hard and it is difficult for any foreigner (if you are not Rovanperä) to be competitive here. We made a small mistake and got stuck in the ditch for a long time. That ruined our race. We will be back stronger in the Baltics in Paide Rally with latest N5 spec car. Best regards, Saku.
Saku Vierimaa
| Driver | Co-Driver | Car | Team | Class | Time | Overall | Class | |||
 | Vaidotas Paškevičius | | Dalius Strižanas |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | Vaidotas Paškevičius | LRC1 / 4 | 51:52.01 | 9 | 8 |
 | Saku Vierimaa | | Mika Rajasalo |  | Peugeot 208 N5 | Saku Vierimaa | LRC1 / 4 | 1:06:24.17 | 38 | 12 |
