September 30- October 1 sixth event of the Lithuanian automobile rally championship “Samsonas Rally Utena” will take place in Utena. This will be the final chord of the season after which the winners and prize winners will be announced. At the moment there still are many unknowns in the results tables and in some classes it will be the last competition that will determine final positions in the season standings.
The last event is always most intriguing as the coefficient 1.5 will be applied to the points gathered. This means that it is possible to score one and a half times more points here than in other competitions of the season.
In addition to these intriguing rules Regulation of the Lithuanian Automobile Rally Championship has another interesting feature – the N-1 formula. It refers to the fact that after all stages of the season one of the worst personal performances of each participant will be eliminated and the remaining five best results will be counted. This is what allows keep unpredictability until the end of the season.
The duo of Dominykas Butvilas and Renatas Vaitkevičius has already secured the title of champions of this year’s Lithuanian rally championship after having won all five rallies that have already taken place. No matter how crew would end up in “Samsonas Rally Utena” they can remain calm as the trophy is theirs. Even in the case of failure, after applying the N-1 rule no one can dislodge them from the throne of rally kings in 2022 even in theoretically.
However, there are many more intriguing things hidden in the scoreboards.In AWD class, which also contains names of participants of absolute qualifications. Even two crews are currently tied on points and fighting for third place.
Crews of Giedrius Firantas and Matas Valiulis as well as Giedrius Notkus and Dalius Strižanas have so far collected 85 points each, and in Utena it will become clear which crew will be classified higher in the end.
A similar situation occurred in the 2WD class where crews compete in single-axle driven cars. Crews with the same number of points – Renaldas with Katažina Šeinauskai and Vytautas Kaziukonis with Algirdas Pranckūnas. Both crews have 67 points each. However, the duo of Kajaus Samsons and Justas Vičiūnas which is only three points behind can still throw their trump card on the table.
Another class in which the differences in points between the participants are sufficiently small is LARC 9. This is the so-called BMW Cup class. The team of Marius Žiukelis and Steponas Kriaučiūnas is ahead with 103 points. However, the second, third and fourth places fit into the amplitude of just eight points. Kajus Samsonas and Justas Vičiūnas are second with 92 points, Jonas Miknius and Mantas Zajarskas have 87, Vytautas Kaziukonis and Algirdas Pranckūnas have 84.
So, “Samsonas Rally Utena” is remaining last event full of intrigue. And mentioned N-1 rule and 1,5 coefficient will keep tension till the last Special Stage. More information about the “Samsonas Rally Utena” competition can be found on the organizers’ page www.samsonasrally.com or „Facebook“.
Patron of event Utena district Municipality
