There are two changes to the LARČ5 / N5 gang for the 2024 season. The first was already known at the beginning of the new year – Giedrius Firantas bought the VW Polo N5 from N. Radišauskas. Throughout the pre-season, it was known that R. Steponavičius had also sold the car, but no body didn’t know to whom. The cloak of secrecy had shrouded the new member of the N5 for an unusually long time, but now it had finally fallen. The new N5 crew was a surprise to many, but also a delight – it’s nice to see a promising young crew driving a fast and reliable car.
Irmantas Buivydas has been competing in the rally since the 2020 season, driving MG ZR 160 and Ford Fiesta R2T in mini-rally, rally sprint, and LARČ events for four years. His brother – Edvinas – reads the pacenotes to Irmantas all the time.
Irmantas shared his thoughts about the new purchase and his plans
How did you get the idea to buy the N5?
Actually, I don’t even know. There was no plan to buy the N5. In the middle of last season we started thinking about the coming season and with what we were going to race because the Ford Fiesta R2T we have has no chance of fighting against the more modern Rally4 cars. It’s no fun going through the whole special stage ‘max attack’ and seeing at the finish that you’ve still lost 10-15 seconds. So at first, we thought about buying a Rally4, but during the Samsonas Utena Rally, Rokas Steponavičius announced that he was going to sell his Ford Fiesta N5. Over the course of a few weeks after the Utena Rally, he kept posting about the car, until finally one day we ended up in his garage to see what a thing this N5 was. Rokas and Dovydas offered us great conditions for the purchase, and thanks to them we now have a car in our garage that I couldn’t even dream of a few years ago. I’m very grateful to them.
Differences between R2T and N5
The difference in performance is very noticeable, it also brakes better, the overall control is similar to the R2T, only at the start and in sharp corners the car shoots forward much faster
Season plans and expectations
The plan for the season is to collect racing kilometers, get used to a completely different car, take part in all events of the LARČ and maybe go somewhere else. There are no expectations yet, I’ve no idea how fast we’ll be compared to the other competitors in the class, but I hope we can race with someone
