This battle of the giants for seconds attracted the most attention, but there was no shortage of action over the 100-kilometer distance behind Deividas and Vaidas as well.
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The fun hills at the front of the pack
“The fun hills were today, I haven’t had such for a long time. In the morning, half asleep, I lost seconds, in the afternoon my eyes opened, we started to speed up, over two special stages we recovered the deficit, made almost an 8-second lead, everything seemed fine, but then we messed up the ‘Power Stage’ on a flat section: in the slowing zone we hit a barrier, and behind it there is a 10-second penalty,” Vaidotas Žala recounted the whole day after the finish.
Crews driving identical “Škoda Fabia RS Rally2” cars fought second by second all day. Deividas started faster in the morning, but after lunch Vaidas took the initiative. A mistake in the “Berner Power Stage” special stage, which awards extra points in the championship, cost Vaidas his 7th victory in Elektrėnai. Gezevičius, who pressured Žala all day, took advantage of this and “added” another 4 seconds in the last special stage on the streets of Elektrėnai city, winning his first Lithuanian rally championship stage by almost 8 seconds.
“An unreal feeling, an unreal feeling to see so many people, the story we created with Vaidas until the finish, that’s why we come here, we enjoy it,” said Deividas Gezevičius, who was crowned with an oak wreath, struggling to find words.
The championship continues
The victory also changed the course of the championship. If Žala had won, or at least finished second and earned many points in the “Power Stage” special stage, he would have become the champion. That was the plan, then both crews could skip the last stage in Mažeikiai.
“It seems we will have to go to the last stage as well, because we lost the ‘Power Stage’ points, dropped to second place, so we are missing one point,” Žala calculated.
“We didn’t count points, but if it turns out this way, then we will have to go to Mažeikiai too,” smiled Deividas Gezevičius.
The third place in the overall rally standings was taken by the crew of Roko Steponavičius and Dovydas Ketvirtis, driving a “Škoda Fabia EVO”. They were 35 seconds behind the leaders.
Winners of the challenging rally
The fastest crew among two-wheel-drive cars was Giedrius Notkus and Dalius Strižanas with a BMW M3.
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“Thanks to Ramūnas (rally organizer) for such beautiful prizes, and the wreath, such things are very precious to me, they keep memories. It was a tough rally, but the strongest win,” said Notkus, the winner of the 2WD category, at the finish.
The fight in this class was also intriguing. Darius Sukackas, also with a BMW M3, started the day strongest, but driveshaft problems pushed them down the positions. One of the engine cylinders stopped working for Andrejus Apočkinas, and Notkus won by a fairly large margin.
In the overall two-wheel-drive car standings, the Buivydas brothers’ crew with a “Ford Fiesta Rally4” car rose to second place. In this stage, they already became “Rally4 Trophy” champions and won an 80,000 EUR grant to start in the European rally championship.
In the LARČ1 category, the fastest was the crew of Justas Tamašauskas and Algirdas Pranckūnas with a “Hyundai i20 WRT”. The LARČ2 class podium was the same as the overall rally standings: Gezevičius, Žala, and Steponavičius. In the LARČ3 class, Justas Simaška with Mantas Ližaitis, returning to the tracks with a “Škoda Fabia R4”, won by a fairly large margin of one and a half minutes over rivals. The Buivydas brothers won LARČ4, and Paulius Beniušis with Kristupas Adinavičius won LARČ5.
The LARČ6 standings were taken over by a large Latvian contingent arriving with “Mitsubishi Lancer EVO” cars. The fastest among them was Ralfs Sirmacis. The LARČ7 winner was Giedrius Notkus. In the LARČ9 class, the fastest were Adomas Kepalas and Juozas Seibutis with a BMW. In the historic cars category, Dovilas Čutelė with Donatas Zvicevičius, driving a VAZ 2105 VFTS, was unbeatable.
“Rally Elektrėnai 2026” was very challenging, 38 crews out of 70 reached the finish, athletes dropped out from the first meters. Aras Kvedaras with Karolis Gedgaudas had a strong crash, overturning a tree with a “Škoda Fabia R5”. Giedrius Firantas, driving with Emilis Kucka, flipped his “Škoda” immediately after the finish of the 5th special stage. Vytautas Švedas broke a wheel of the “Volkswagen Polo R5” in the penultimate special stage by hitting a culvert.
The next stage, where the Lithuanian rally champion will be decided, will be held on October 2-3 in Mažeikiai.
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