Awards for the winners of the Gravel Fest Rally – Lazdijai 2022!
The first participants of the Lithuanian Rally Sprint Championship came to the start, who immediately had to overcome the biggest test – the two longest speed sections of about eight kilometers, run twice. After the first section, the crews of the Lithuanian Mini Rally Championship joined the rally sprint participants, with six speed sections and a total length of 23 km. Finally, after a full day of viral struggle for seconds and parts of it, the participants finished in Lazdijai City Park, which was the epicenter of the event all day.
After ten speed stages, it finally became clear which participants of the Lithuanian Rally Sprint Championship and the Lithuanian Mini Rally Championship deserved to take the stage to retrieve the won trophies and get the first points of the season.
The crew of the guests from Latvia, who drove a Subaru Impreza, performed best in the Lithuanian car rally sprint standings. The duo of Mareks Švarcs and Armands Lūkins won the second part of the competition. Although in the first stages the Latvians lost to the duo of Ramūnas and Titas Čapkauskas, in the second part of the competition they managed to find a reserve of seconds and finally left the Lithuanians behind for a little more than three seconds, thus becoming the fastest crew of the Gravel Fest Rally – Lazdijai 2022. Eugenijus Sladkevičius and Artūras Šabanavičius, who competed in the Mitsubishi Mirage, won the third place in the same OPEN standings.
In the 2WD class, Justas Tamašauskas did not leave any chance with the new co-pilot Dovydas Ketvirtis. They surpassed Vytautas Kaziukonis and Algirdas Pranckūnas, who finished in second place, with a very solid advantage – more than two minutes. Lukas Pečeliūnas and Gediminas Satkus established themselves in the third place in this class. They took that place with a slightly less than two-second advantage over Irmantas and Edvinas Buivydas. The latter started with the Ford Fiesta R2, but were accompanied by technical problems, so they could not show their full potential.
In the SG-4 standings, the prize positions were shared by two duets, who were awarded in the final scoreboard in just under 24 seconds. In this fight, Ugnius Terekas and Matas Patėjūnas defeated the family duo of Julius and Laimonas Mališevičius.
In the SG-3 class, the tandem of Ovidijus Knyšius and Silverijus Lapėnas stepped on the highest step of the prize-winning platform. They surpassed all their opponents with a solid advantage. The second and third places were shared by Mantas Garbuzas and Paulius Butavičius and Nerijus Kliokys and Erenstas Laurinavičius, respectively.
There was already much more competition in the SG-2 class, so the taste of victory for Evaldas Gezevičius and Šarūnas Gumauskas was much sweeter. They left the tandem of Mantas Drumžlis and Mantas Gričius behind their backs for a little over half a minute. Audronis Gulbinas and Vytis Pauliukonis (Honda Civic) finished in third place.
Justinas Kvaraciejus and Jonas Keršys triumphed in the OC class of the Lithuanian Mini Rally Championship. They accumulated 4.5 sec over a distance of 23 km. advantage over Benas Strumskis and Arnoldas Bujokas. Both crews drove Subaru Impreza’s. The third-place cup was lifted by the family tandem of Milvydas and Kęstutis Malinauskas, who ran on the gravel roads of the Lazdijai area, the Subaru Legacy, which once belonged to the multiple Lithuanian rally champion Rokas Lipeikis.
Laimonas Latvėnas and Alvaidas Daugėla won the best time in the “Retro” class, which is unofficially called “LADA”. Arūnas Lekavičius and Kastytis Švedas were about nine seconds short of the leaders. The third in this classification are Marius Obeliūnas and Marcelinas Sorkinas.
The duo of Vilmantas Karalius and Austėja Karaliūtė were the best in the SGC-1 standings and the winners’ cups were raised. Throughout the day, they gained about a half-minute advantage over Donatas and Nerijus Mankevičius. Redas Alubickis and Mantas Malčiauskas took the third place really hard. They are just 1.6 sec. surpassed the crew of Austėja Straukaitė and Vilmantas Strauka.
Lukas Gordonas, whose pacenotes was dictated by Rugilė Sakalauskaitė, was recognized as the winner of the SGC-2 class. Less than 15 sec Rokas and Simonas Ravinskiai lagged behind the leaders and took the second place. Povilas Vasiliauskas and Karolis Usačiovas were the third place winners with only four seconds to go before the awards.
In the SGC-3 classification, the winners’ cups were awarded to the crew of Martynas Tereikis and Saulius Ruzgas. Klaudas Bučinskas and Ignas Benotas from Panevėžys stepped on the second step. They were only 7 seconds away from winning the class. Markas Buteikis and Ugnius Vainevičius finished the performance in third place.
In the SGC-4 class, all winners fit in a half-minute interval. The winners were Vytautas Venclovas and Darius Saulevičius. Edgaras Briedys and Edvinas Bieliauskas took second place. Robertas Petraška and Andrius Kašėta finished in third place.
The tandem of father and daughter triumphed in the “Veteran” standings. Antanas Akučka and Akvile Akučkaite-Paulauskas rode near the road, but they did not damage their Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X and won the titles. Valentinas and Simas Junevičiai finished second in this class. Tadeuš Teras and Mindaugas Giedraitis won the third place cups.
During the rally evening in Lazdijai city park, not only cup sets were distributed to the winners and prize-winners, but a concert program was also organized. The Ukrainian group TaRuta and the well-known Du Donatai delighted the crowd with their works.
