The rally in Alūksne began already on the evening of Friday 19 January, when the athletes performed two speed stages in the dark of the day. While the best time was initially set by Samsonas, the Lithuanian was given a 10-second penalty for an early start in the first stage, relegating him to third place, while it was Blum who took the lead of the rally.
During the second day of the “Alūksne” rally, the crews had to face eight more speed tests. It was Samsonas who regained the lead position after the first “dopa” on Saturday. For the rest of the day the distance to the closest pursuer was variable, however until the last speed stage the Lithuanian had an advantage of almost 10 seconds over Blum.
To the great surprise of those interested in the rally, who were numerous in Alūksne this week, Blum succeeded in the final speed phase of the rally, achieving the second fastest time, but after covering 11.53 km, he made up the deficit of 8, 20 seconds, beating the Lithuanian crew – at the end of the rally, Blum/Eglīša’s total time was only 0.63 seconds faster than Samson/Snitka. Estonians Enoks/Simms, who finished third, were 29.84 seconds behind the winner.
In the Latvian Rally Championship (LRČ), Blum achieved a convincing victory, beating closest followers Jānis Vorobiov / Guntar Zicān (“Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII”) by 52.55 seconds. The Estonian crew Prits Koiks / Kristo Tamms (Škoda Fabia evo) took third place in the general classification of the LRČ, losing 55.60 seconds to the winner.
In the powerful LRČ5 class Emil Blum won, Jānis Vorobyovs/Guntars Zicāns took second place, and Kalvis Blums/Ralfs Lipstock took third place, which he started with a new car – “Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI”.
Madars Dīriņš/Gints Lasmanis were certainly the fastest in the LRČ7 class, preceding the experienced Estonian Karela Torpa by half a minute. In the LRČ4 class, the talented 16-year-old Estonian Japers Vahers (”Ford Fiesta Rally4”) remained undefeated, leading his closest pursuers by almost 27 seconds.
Rally results:
2024-01-21 15:50:00
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