Less than three weeks left until the climax of the Lithuanian automobile rally championship, which will take place in Utena and its surroundings September 30 – October 1. The final stage of the season “Samsonas Rally Utena” which is already attracting the attention of rally fans with constantly increasing list of participants will be held here, .
When the registration for “Samsonas Rally Utena” started, the applications of competitors poured in as if from a horn of abundance, because this competition will be a stage not only of the Lithuanian automobile rally, but also of the Lithuanian automobile rally sprint championship and the Latvian automobile rally championship.
The crew of Justas Tamašauskas and Dovydas Ketvirtis was one of the first to submit the application. They re-registered here with a Škoda Fabia R5. And although Justas Tamašauskas assured before the rally competition in Elektrėnai that this project is a one-time event and he still has plans with his BMW, it seems that the pilot has changed his mind and will appear again in Utena behind the wheel of the R5 category car that has impressed him.
“We gave up the plan for the rally in Estonia with BMW, because we don’t have much time. But another thing is our result with Škoda in Elektrėnai Rally. I won’t hide that this definitely influenced this decision. I want to test this car again at the Utena Special Stages with so many jumps. We want that second chance to drive more correctly, more precisely, faster. We do not promise to be faster or slower, but we will try to drive fast and safe. And maybe in the future we will get some kind of plan with this car, if we have a good experience with it now”, said Justas Tamašauskas.
Sportsman claims that he has no plans to rent the used BMW to anyone, at least for now. The car is currently still disassembled after the rally in Rokiškis.
“There are no immediate plans with BMW right now, but maybe we will strategise something else and go to some event ourselves, but we have not planned anything yet. Now we have a very serious competition with the Škoda car, which we want to get to know even better,” said Justas Tamašauskas, denying rumors circulating on the Internet that his BMW is already rented for the “Samsonas Rally Utena” competition.
Although the crew of Justas Tamašauskas and Dovydas Ketvirtis is one of the most intriguing and raises questions in a good way, other interesting things can be found in the list of participants of “Samsonas Rally Utena”.
A young Finnish sportsman Sami Pajari behind the wheel of Martynas Samsonas Škoda Fabia N5+. Another Finn Teemu Asunmaa also tested this car in this year’s Rally Rokiškis. But this time he was stopped by a breakdown at the start of the second day of the rally.
“With both Sami Pajari and Teemu Asunmaa we have things in common, common projects, so this time we decided to invite Sami. He has driven an R5, so we offered him to try our N5+. It is important for us to get feedback about our car, about what we still need to do to improve it, adjust it. We don’t drive it ourselves also because this season is not successful for us. I am joking that I’m not good with my head as well as with my results this year. We need to prepare for the next season, and drivers like Sami or Teemu can really help in finding more speed for the car”, said Martyn Samson.
The list of participants currently includes more than 70 crews from nine countries. Among them are crew from Spain who do not often visit our country’s rallies. The crew of Gil Membrado and Rogelio Penate will race here in a Ford Fiesta R2.
In addition to Lithuanian, Finnish and Spanish, crews from Latvia, Estonia, Norway, Belgium, Ukraine and Poland will start in “Samsonas Rally Utena” competition.
