85 participants from seven countries will meet in Utena for the final event for Lithuania, Latvia and the Baltic Sea championship trophies. On September 27, they will line up at the starting line and cover more than a hundred kilometers in two days on the excellent special stages of Utena, Zarasai and Anykščiai districts.
The first four who received the first starting numbers will probably not surprise anyone, as the crews who received them are constantly fighting for the first places and the podium. The crew of Vladas Jurkevičius and Aisvydas Paliukėnas, driving the Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo, have received the first start number, which maybe lead them to their first championship title. Giedrius Notkus and Dalius Strižanas (Škoda Fabia R5) received the second starting number, 30 points away from Vladas, who leads the overall standings. The man from Panevėžys must not only try to overtake Vladas, but also not overdo it, because right next to him in the overall standings are Rokas Steponavičius with Dovydas Ketvirtis (Škoda Fabia R5) and Nedas Radišauskas with Justas Vičiūnas (Škoda Fabia R5). One of the fastest Estonians returning to the Lithuanian special stages – Egon Kaur with Allan Birjukov – will definitely be involved in the Lithuanian battle, targeting only the top positions. The Hyundai i20 VRT, developed in Lithuania by MV Sport men and driven by an Estonian, will have the fifth starting number. E.Kaur will not only be fighting for victory in the overall rally standings, but also for the Baltic Sea Championship trophy. It is also necessary to mention the frequent and extremely fast guest from Latvia – Emil Blūms, who received the sixth number and returns to Lithuania with his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. The latter in particular has been improved these days with a double wishbone suspension from MV Sport, which will enable the Latvian to be even faster.
There is no shortage of interesting things beyond the top ten. Number 12 has been awarded to the brother of the aforementioned E.Blūms – Kalvis, who drives an extremely fast Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI with a legendary design. Martynas Samsonas will start with the number seventeen at his home rally with the special creation of “Samsonas Motorsport” – BMW E36 M3 with N5 suspension. Martynas’ pacenotes will be read out by his longtime co-driver Ervinas Snitkas. Immediately behind Martynas – the trio, which has a very stubborn fight throughout the season, consists of two Polish and Lithuanian crews. Tymoteusz Abramowski and his new co-driver Jakub Wrobel will start with starting number 18, and directly behind them will be the crew of Adrian Rzeznik and Adrian Sadowski. Both Polish crews drive Ford Fiesta Rally3 cars. The best-known Lithuanian farmer Petras Šiaučiūnas has been fighting with them throughout the season. In the middle of the season, he switched to the Škoda Fabia Rally2 kit, and he is supported by Žilvinas Juršys.
Further on the starting list we can find a number of representatives of the Latvian Rally Championship – Martinš Kikusts, Kristeris Cimdinš or Guntis Lielkajs – all of them are loyal to Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution cars of various evolutionary stages. Egidijus Valeiša, who has returned to the rally stages this season with a Hyundai i20 VRT, Mikolaj Kempa, who has not been in Lithuania for some time, with a rented Ford Fiesta N5 and Pawel Wazny with a Ford Fiesta Rally3 promise to join the battle between them.
No less competition awaits other crews with 2WD cars, who will probably have to settle for second place behind the aforementioned M.Samsonas. Estonian Markus Tammoja, who is fighting for the title in the Lithuanian 2WD class, has received the thirtieth starting number with his BMW M3, and Renaldas Šeinauskas with his BMW 316Ti will be hot on his heels. The famous “BMW Cup” trio, consisting of Markas Buteikis, Klaudas Bučinskas and Emilis Kucka, should also be close by. Fifteen-year-old Finn Isak Hatanmaa, who drives a car with a completely different philosophy, often takes part in this triple fight this year with a Peugeot 208 Rally4. Also interesting will be the return of last year’s LARČ4 champion from Turkey Can Alakoc with a Renault Clio Rally4 and the only guest from Finland – Kim Forsgren, who will drive a BMW M3 on the gravel roads of Utena.
It is worth mentioning that the list of participants includes no less than 15 women, including two full crews – Nadiia Soboleva with Tetyana Kravtsova (Ford Fiesta Rally3) and Ernesta Globytė with Gabriele Gedgaudė (BMW 328). Also, the safety of the stages will be ensured by the crew of brother and sister – Kajus Samsonas and Maja Samsonaitė, and instead of the tenth, Linas Vaškys and Laurynas Paškevičius (Škoda Fabia SRT Proto) got the hundredth number due their starts statistics.
There are 68 participants registered for the Lithuanian Rally Championship, 25 for the Latvian, and 32 crews for the Baltic Championship.
We also invite you to arrange passports for the “Samsonas Rally Utena 2024” rally in advance on the Bilietai.lt platform. Ticket price – 15 Euros. The event is free for children under 12 years old.
