In Druskininkai and the surrounding forests, not only the Lithuanian Mini Rally Championship, but also this year’s entire Lithuania rally season has officially ended. The event in Druskininkai was very special, as the special stages were on the same roads that were used for the LARČ and WRC events ten years ago. However, they were divided into smaller sections. The special feature of these roads is not only that they run alongside the trees in the woods, but also that the surface is extremely soft in some places. As a result, ruts formed very quickly for the participants in the guest class because they started after the main channel of the mini-rally.
However, the ruts had little negative impact on cars like N5, and Deividas Gezevičius, who was alongside Arnoldas Petkevičius on this event, won all the special stages held on Saturday without any problems. After just over 25 kilometers, he with Ford Fiesta N5 was almost a minute ahead of Tautvydas Narušis, who remained in second place. Julius Masonas, who was with Lithuanian rally champion Aisvydas Paliukėnas in this rally, also had a really good race. The duo in the Renault Clio N5 stepped on the right pedal from the start and achieved fifth place overall and second place in the guest class. Third among their N5 colleagues and tenth in the overall standings – the Hyundai i20 N5 of Rokas Markovičius and Martyn Masaitis, who completed a record number of rallies this year. Unfortunately, Aurimas Eidžiūnas and Justas Barysas did not reach the finish line. At the halfway point of the rally, they were in second place with a Ford Fiesta N5, 10 seconds behind Deividas Gezevičius. However, a hit tree in the fifth stage forced the team to withdraw from the competition.
Driver | Co-driver | Car | Team | Class | Time | Overall | Class | |||
Deividas Gezevičius | Arnoldas Petkevičius | Ford Fiesta N5 | Nordis racing team | Svečių | 16:57.83 | 1 | 1 | |||
Julius Masonas | Aisvydas Paliukėnas | Renault Clio N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | Svečių | 18:36.86 | 5 | 2 | |||
Rokas Markovičius | Martynas Masaitis | Hyundai i20 N5 | Gorilla Burgers Racing Team | Svečių | 18:55.09 | 10 | 4 | |||
Aurimas Eidžiūnas | Justas Barysas | Ford Fiesta N5 | 7Bet Racing | Svečių | DNF | – | – |