“At the beginning of the season, we said we would drive for our own pleasure. Participating in the country’s main rally races is not always possible due to a busy schedule, so we gladly choose rally sprint.”
Read more Young artists – an opportunity to be noticed: call for candidates for awards announced
The format of these competitions is such that we get enough adrenaline, and this hobby does not take too much time away from work. Even before the last special stage, when the fate of the championship title was decided, we said we were driving for our own pleasure,” said racer Aurimas Eidžiūnas after the finish, who eventually became this year’s absolute champion.
Three consecutive wins at the end of the season
Aurimas, driving a “Ford Puma N5” car for a year, did not start with his regular co-driver Justas Barysas.
“In the first race of the season in Rokiškis, I started with my sister. We were just planning, I wanted to try how the newly prepared car drives for racing, so we started in the so-called ‘zero’ classification. Everything went well, so with Justas, we started together in the second championship stage in Visaginas.
We drove well, fast, but the car started to ‘act up’ at the end of the rally: we did not score points in the first stage. But after that, we proved to ourselves and others that we can be really fast – we won in Tauragė and Šilalė, and the victory in the Plungė-Rietavas rally was unexpected for us, but even more surprises were provided by the final season points table,” said the new national rally sprint champion.
The last kilometers decided everything
In total, there were 8 special stages in the Plungė-Rietavas rally sprint race, which participants had to complete behind “Dacia” safety cars.
Two crews were considered favorites before the race, named the most realistic candidates not only for victory but also for the national champion titles. Domas Bukavičius and Aurimas Galkontas (“Subaru Impreza”) and Mantas Gurkšnys and Grigorijus Tarasovas (BMW) had to figure out among themselves who would score more points, as points earned in the last championship stage were multiplied by a coefficient of 1.2. Even before the last stage began, Mantas said that the fight for the championship title would be between him and Domas. However, later events showed that even mathematical possibilities should not be ruled out.
Read more Inflation in the eurozone reached the highest level in three years in August
First of all, the rally ended for Domas Bukavičius due to gearbox problems already in the first special stage. The crew of Julius Mason and Evaldas Giedraitis, who switched to a “Škoda Fabia R5,” drove very fast, Tadas Gombrevičius and Aleksas Gorinskis, racing in a “Mitsubishi Lancer,” did not want to fall behind, and the guests from Latvia were also ambitious. M. Gurkšnys and G. Tarasovas’ crew fought for a place among the top three rally sprint classification crews.
“By the last special stage, we had already somewhat damaged the rear part of the car, so we definitely did not want any additional ‘adventures.’ But we managed to successfully complete the difficult last special stage, the so-called ‘power stage’ kilometers. We did not think about the mathematics in the final season points table – we seemed to be too far behind at the beginning of the championship. After the finish, we congratulated Mantas Gurkšnys’ crew on the championship title, but later it turned out that we actually scored the most points in the championship,” rejoiced Aurimas Eidžiūnas.
Aurimas and Justas Barysas’ crew won the race in the rally sprint classification, Latvians K. Dzenitis and J. Strazdinis came second, J. Mason and E. Giedraitis finished third, and M. Gurkšnys and G. Tarasovas were fourth.
Maybe there will be a cherry on top
The new national rally sprint champions have not finished the season yet. It is very likely that we will see their crew in late autumn in Estonia.
“The Saaremaa rally always attracts. For now, we consider that plan like a cherry on top – maybe it will be realized. And next year, we are considering a rally sprint season in neighboring countries. The Lithuanian rally championship is becoming a competition among crews who try to drive as many kilometers as possible in tests. The extended competition format, a kind of four-day ‘circus,’ when you have to take a long break from work for several days, is not very acceptable to us.
But in rally sprint tracks, we get enough adrenaline, the competition here is really serious, so the races are definitely attractive. We can call ourselves ‘business class racers,’ for whom the rally sprint championship is probably the optimal solution. The N5 class car is competitive, our crew is already used to it, and the results at the end of the season show that we drive both steadily and really fast. The championship title is indeed unexpected for us, but I cannot say that we are not happy,” say the new national rally sprint champions.
Read more Former bank building in Vilnius is reborn for a new life: 42 apartments will be installed
