At this weekend’s third round of the Lithuanian Rally Championship and the FIA European Rally Trophy candidate event, all the talk was about the rain and how the dozens of millimetres of non-stop precipitation would affect the results. However, the extremely difficult weather conditions and the sometimes ice-like slippery surface did not cause too many problems for the championship leaders – the fight was tense throughout the rally.
On Thursday, the participants of the Jusema Rally Ukmergė 2026 had more than to keep their umbrellas to hand – several crews, while preparing for the special stages, failed to appreciate the impact of the rain that had soaked the stages for several days. Colleagues with more serious 4×4 equipment had to rescue the crews who got into trouble, and by dawn on Friday it was clear that the Ukmergė “Versmė” autocross track would not remain on the rally route, as the meteorological conditions had turned it into almost a lake. The first to break through the mud on the special stages were the Dacia cars, followed immediately by the championship leaders. To the surprise of many, Deividas Gezevičius, born and raised in Ukmergė, did not find his pace on Friday – the speed shown in the previous events and the walls of his home probably created pressure that did not help the racer in the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 at all. The result was a deficit of almost 18 seconds to his main opponent, Vaidotas Žala, who was driving an identical car. Moreover, Rokas Steponavičius and Dovydas Ketvirtis, who had worked day and night with the rally’s organisation, inserted themselves between them. A great fight also broke out in the 2WD classification between the BMW M3 cars – Giedrius Notkus was chased by Darius Sukackas, and only three seconds separated them.
Saturday morning did not promise anything new – the weather remained gloomy, the special stages shone with excess water, and the racers continued to search for the limits of grip and for seconds they could cut from their stage times. It seems that Deividas Gezevičius got out of bed on the right foot, as he took second place from Rokas Steponavičius during the first few special stages of the second day, after Rokas was slowed by wheel alignment that had gone astray with the help of a stump. However, no matter how hard both tried, Vaidotas Žala did not give up his lead to anyone from the first to the last special stage – the half of the stages he won brought him his third hard-earned victory in a row. There was no less intrigue behind the top three – tension persisted between the Pole Aronas Domžala, Giedrius Firantas and Justas Tamašauskas for fourth place throughout the rally. Giedrius Firantas’ mistake on the penultimate special stage left their Škoda Fabia R5 arriving at the finish more than a minute behind. Justas Tamašauskas in the Hyundai i20 VRT even had to overtake his rival on the special stage, which cost him some time that the stewards later compensated for. The guests from Poland also made mistakes on the same stage, so Justas Tamašauskas jumped from sixth to fourth place just before the final stage. In the end, Aronas Domžala managed to drive better over the sixteen kilometres of wet, dense forest, and did not hide that it was one of the craziest special stages he had ever had to drive. Six seconds were enough for the Polish rally raid star to regain fourth place.
The last kilometres also brought upheaval in the 2WD classification. The aforementioned penultimate, 14th special stage “grabbed” 2WD leader Giedrius Notkus, whose BMW M3 axle shaft broke, so his place was taken by Andrejus Apočkinas, who had a relatively safe 42-second lead before the last stage, also with a BMW M3. The extremely slippery forest road and a hitted tree cost Andrejus and his co-driver Anuš more than they had in reserve, so victory in the 2WD classification went to Lithuanian Rally4 Trophy leader Irmantas Buivydas in a Ford Fiesta Rally4. Andrius Grigaitis and Mantas Elsbergas, who made their debut at the highest level this year, had a particularly bold plan before the last special stage. The racers, whose mistake on the very first day had ruined their overall result, had an opportunistic plan to make up 41 seconds and thus jump onto the podium that had escaped at the start of the rally. The pair drove sixteen wild kilometres on a knife edge, fulfilled their mission and at the finish discovered that they had beaten their competitors by as much as 52 seconds. This was more than enough for the crew to climb onto the podium in Ukmergė Castle Park.
Just before the competition, on a test special stage, Rokas Steponavičius and Aras Kvedaras showed people unfamiliar with rallying what it means to be a rally co-driver. The experience of sitting in a sports car and feeling what it is like to drive at maximum speed on gravel roads was taken up by the mayor of Ukmergė District Municipality, Darius Varnas, and well-known personalities such as Mindaugas Papinigis and Vytautas Medineckas – “IronVytas”. After this entertainment, the men did not hide their admiration for the racers’ professional driving at speeds of up to 180 km/h on gravel roads.
