The Lithuanian Rally Championship returned to Ukmergė after a break of more than 20 years. New and long-forgotten special stages presented more than one surprise for rally crews. If there were only a few small incidents on Friday, then from early Saturday morning, this region claimed a lot of victims.
Sixteen out of sixteen – that’s how many special stages the current leader of the Lithuanian Rally Championship, Vaidotas Žala, won. The rally winner, who drove a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 with co-driver Ugnius Vainevičius, built up a lead of almost two minutes over 115 sporting kilometers. The special stages in the Ukmergė district were merciless for those who tried to chase him. Last year’s season champion Vladas Jurkevičius and Aisvydas Paliukėnas got stuck in the local vegetation after approaching one of the corners too quickly on the very first special stage on Saturday. Although everything was fine for the crew and the Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo car, they were unable to pull the car out and continue the race. Fate did not spare Deividas Gezevičius from Ukmergė, who was driving wonderfully. The racer, who showed excellent results and was highly supported by the locals, stopped on the eleventh special stage due to a technical failure. Justas Simaška, who was in second place, did not drive much further also. On the twelfth special stage, the Škoda Fabia SRT Proto car skidded off the road and rolled several times. The crew remained unharmed, but the same could not be said about the car. Giedrius Notkus and Dalius Strižanas were second in the Jusema Rally Ukmergė 2025. They did not pretend to catch up with Vaidotas Žala, who had escaped to the front, but they had to keep an eye on what was happening behind them. Giedrius Firantas and Matas Valiulis, racing in an identical Škoda Fabia R5, were nearby the whole time and got close to Giedrius in the last special stage. However, the push in the last special stage was not enough, and five seconds separated the second and third places in the end. Martynas Samsonas and Ervinas Snitkas became the fastest crew driving a two-wheel drive car. Their skillfully controlled red BMW M3 E36 was unstoppable for their competitors, and over the entire rally distance, they were three minutes behind their nearest rival.
There was no shortage of intrigue and drama in the Lithuanian Rally4 Trophy standings, where we are fighting for an 80,000 EUR scholarship to start in the 2026 European Rally Championship. After Friday, four participants in this classification claimed victory in this rally, but Saturday very quickly adjusted everything in its own way. First of all, the current leader of the Lithuanian Rally4 Trophy, Markas Buteikis, withdrew from the competition. Unfortunately, the walls of his house did not help him and the young man slid off the track and damaged the radiator of his Ford Fiesta Rally4, which ended the competition early. Irmantas Buivydas from Kelmė, who was driving an identical car, encountered problems and lost a lot of time. Erikas Valkeris was also unlucky with his Opel Corsa Rally4. At the beginning of the 12th stage, the front wheel studs broke and the crew simply stood in the middle of the road while the broken wheel traveled through the meadows to its own destination. However, the main climax occurred in the last, almost eighteen-kilometer special stage. Before the crucial and most difficult stage of this rally, the leaders of this classification, Aras Kvedaras and Klaudas Bučinskas, driving Peugeot 208 Rally4 cars, were separated by only eight seconds. Klaudas successfully finished the stage, but did not catch his opponent Aras at the finish line. The race ended very disappointingly for the young man, who was soon celebrating his eighteenth birthday, when he broke a wheel in the middle of the last stage due to a stump that was hidden in the inner trajectory of the turn.
