More than a month of winter nonsense is finally over, and the organizers and participants of the competition can calmly prepare for the first stage of the Lithuanian Car Rally Sprint Championship, which will take place this Saturday. Although the postponements and other circumstances have slightly reduced the number of crews, about fifty participants from Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have still decided to come to Rokiškis and offer the spectators of this event an amazing spectacle.
The “Biorina Winter Rally Rokiškis” received 44 entries, which were divided very evenly into two parts. 22 crews will compete in the Lithuanian Auto Rally Sprint Championship (LARSČ) classification, while the remaining 22 participants will be guests of this competition and will not compete for points. In order to prevent the LARSČ participants from being overshadowed by the guests, who often bring better equipment, there is a clause in the regulations according to which the first starting numbers are given to the LARSČ Championship participants and the guests only drive after them. This gives the championship participants a better road and more equal conditions to compete against each other.
The crew of Mindaugas Grikienis and Donatas Gaidelis, driving a Subaru Impreza, will wear the first starting number and will be the first to drive through the starting arch erected on the Sąjūdis square. It will be followed by another Subaru Impreza, in which Arūnas Černius and Jolanta Ščiglinskienė will act as crew. The third starting number was awarded to the most popular rally car in Lithuania – BMW. Mantas Gurkšnys, who only started his rally career last year, will be at the wheel with experienced co-driver Grigorij Tarasov. It is pleasing that several very interesting crews will be taking part in the LARSČ Championship. Vaidotas Paškevičius, who fought for victories in the LARČ main championship last season, promises to drive the entire sprint season this year, and in Rokiškis he will use a very fast Ford Fiesta N5 for this purpose. Another car in this class will be entered in the championship by a newcomer to rallying – Julius Masonas. He will compete with a Renault Clio N5. It is very pleasing that the Lithuanian rally pyramid is working and some of the participants of the Lithuanian Mini Rally Championship (LMRČ), which was one step lower, will take a step forward and take part in the LARSC championship. Among them is the rally media team that has become real rally drivers – Mantas Dilys with Laurynas Matonis, SGC-1 champion Vilmantas Karalius, who has bought an extremely fast Honda Civic car that is also championship-winning. Another fast Honda Civic will be brought into the LARSC championship by SGC-2 champion Lukas Gordonas with Rugilė Sakalauskaitė. Kārlis Dzenītis, the son of the director of the well-known Latvian sports car rental company “Baltic Motorsport Promotion”, has also submitted an application to take part in the LARSC championship with a BMW 320.
It is expected that the battles between the sprint participants in Rokiškis will be intense, but it is natural that the greatest attention will be paid to the very famous guests who have come to the competition. “Biorina Winter Rally Rokiškis 2025” will have the honor to host the Lithuanian Rally Champion of 2024 and Dakar Rally participant Vladas Jurkevičius, who will compete here in the “Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo” car, and the pacenotes will be read by Ugnius Vainevičius, who will briefly replace the usual co-driver Aisvydas Paliukėnas. Other famous names will try to throw down the gauntlet to him. Last season’s star and LARČ5 champion Irmantas Buivydas will visit Rokiškis with his brother Edvinas and the “Ford Fiesta N5”. The absolute legend of Lithuanian motorsport and multiple champion – Ramūnas Čapkauskas – will also make an appearance. He and Kastis Torrau will compete with the “Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX”. One of the most interesting names on the list is the extremely fast driver Justas Simaška, who has experience in European rallying and on the race track. The Kaunas-born driver, who has driven 2WD cars throughout his career, will make his debut in Rokiškis with an all-wheel drive Škoda Fabia R4. With a somewhat unexpected BMW, we will also see such fast drivers as Giedrius Notkus or Nedas Radišauskas.
We also remind you of the basic rules for safe competition observation: never stand in the outside of a corner, do not approach the places marked with “danger zone” signs, always stay behind fences, STOP lanes or other barriers, do not sit in a place that you cannot leave quickly and do not walk around the track during the competition.
During the “Biorina Winter Rally Rokiškis”, wristbands (tickets) will be available for purchase at the entrances to the speed trials and from 21.02.2025 at 15:00. Municipal administration of the Rokiškis district (rally center)
The event is free for children under 12 years of age.
Ticket price 10€
