As always, the fourth event of the Lithuanian Car Rally Championship lived up to its name as an endurance rally. There were some crashes and damaged cars, unfortunately, some N5s were among the dropouts, but a few others drove as if it was a sprint rally. But to everything from the start.
Friday of the rally was greeted by five special stages, two of which were gravel and driven twice, and one half-gravel, half-tarmac in Rokiškis. While one of the gravel stages was characterized by the artificial jumps made by the organizers, the other was characterized by its length and complexity. As usual, D. Gezevičius, I. Buivydas and G. Firantas took up the fight from the first kilometers. E. Sladkevičius was also supposed to be on this list, but the half-axle failure in the first special stage meant that this rally became one of the shortest for the crew. Unfortunately, G. Firantas did not get too far either – a jump over an artificially raised jump in the third special stage damaged the car’s cooling system so badly that the crew was forced to withdraw from the competition.
I. Buivydas was also unlucky – after catching up with another car on the stage, Irmantas lost a lot of valuable time in the dust. While the competitors had a rather oppressive start to the rally, D. Gezevičius flew on the wings and got involved in the fight for fifth place with his former N5 classmate. Deividas had already taken almost a minute off Irmantas on the first day of the rally. The Citroen C3 N5 crew of P. Beniušis and K. Adinavičius drove a perfect and very effective race – this duo finished fifteenth. The newcomers of the N5 class – R. Markovičius and M. Masaitis gradually got used to the incomparably better car and finished in the top forty with the Hyundai i20 N5.
The second day of the rally with ninety kilometers and ten special stages was less adventurous. It can be said that after a very painful Friday, Saturday was much more favorable, although there were challenges. Deividas Gezevičius and Tomas Nenartavičius continued to fight second by second with their former classmate Nedas Radišauskas. Deividas even managed to do top 3 times but had quite a scary moment. A series of potholes that opened up in one of the special stage became the spot where D. Gezevičius hit one of the potholes extremely hard with the front part of the car, completely destroying even such a strong part as the floor protection. However, the N5 cars are tough built so even with damage Deividas managed to return to the service area at a good speed, where the experienced mechanics put the car back into fighting condition. In the final section of Saturday, the Nordis Racing Team crew made up lost time and eventually overtook their rival. In the end, the N5 crew reached the closed park in fourth place overall, +0.28 seconds ahead of Nedas Radišauskas, repeating their previous year’s success at the Elektrėnai Rally. They were also the fastest in the LARČ1.
The other members of the N5 family also did well: I. Buivydas climbed from 11th to seventh place on Saturday and took another victory in the LARČ5 class. In the same way, P. Beniušis and K. Adinavičius fought for positions on Saturday, finishing 11th before the final special stage in Rokiškis. However, the end of the rally was bittersweet for the team, as time penalties dropped them to 15th in the final standings. On the other hand, they still won second place in the LARČ5. R. Markovičius and M. Masaitis also managed to fight back a a lot of positions. Their newly acquired Hyundai i20 N5 moved up ten places in the overall standings on Saturday to 30th place, which was enough for Rokas and Martynas to finish on the podium in third place in the LARČ5.
Now we have quite a break until the Elektrėnai Rally, but there is a possibility that there will be some N5 action before then 🙂
| Driver | Co-driver | Car | Team | Class | Time | Overall | Class | |||
 | Deividas Gezevičius | | Tomas Nenartavičius |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | Nordis racing team | LARČ1 | 1:16:07.94 | 4 | 1 |
| Irmantas Buivydas | | Edvinas Buivydas | | Ford Fiesta N5 | 7Bet Racing by RALLY4FUN | LARČ5 | 1:17:51.99 | 7 | 1 |
| Paulius Beniušis | | Kristupas Adinavičius |  | Citroen C3 N5 | ABEPA ST-SPORT | LARČ5 | 1:21:35.91 | 15 | 2 |
| Rokas Markovičius | | Martynas Masaitis |  | Hyundai i20 N5 | Gorilla Burgers | LARČ5 | 1:30:46.44 | 30 | 3 |
| Giedrius Firantas | | Matas Valiulis |  | VW Polo N5 | Autoralis | LARČ5 | DNF | – | – |
| Eugenijus Sladkevičius | | Marius Kairys |  | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | LARČ1 | DNF | – | – |
