The rally in Alūksne started already on the evening of Friday, January 19, when the athletes performed two speed stages in the dark of the day. If the best time was initially achieved by Samsonas, then the Lithuanian was given a 10-second penalty for an early start in the first stage, relegating him to the third position, while it was Blum who took the lead in the rally.
During the second day of the “Alūksne” rally, the crews had to perform eight more speed stages. It was Samsonas who regained the leading position after the first Saturday “dopa”. In the continuation of the day, the distance to the nearest follower 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 in large numbers in Alūksne this week, Blum took care of it in the final speed stage of the rally, achieving the second fastest time, but after covering 11.53 km, he recovered the deficit of 8.20 seconds, beating the Lithuanian crew – at the end of the rally, the total of Blum / Eglīša the time was only 0.63 seconds faster than Samson / Snitka. Estonians Enoks / Simms, who finished in third place, were 29.84 seconds behind the winner.
In the Latvian Rally Championship (LRČ), Blum won a convincing victory, beating the closest followers Jānis Vorobiov / Guntar Zicān (“Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII”) by 52.55 seconds. Estonian crew Prits Koiks / Kristo Tamms (Škoda Fabia evo) took third place in the overall standings of the LRČ, losing 55.60 seconds to the winner.
In the powerful LRČ5 class, Emil Blum won, Jānis Vorobyovs/Guntars Zicāns won the second place, and Kalvis Blums/Ralfs Lipstock took the third place, who started with a new car – “Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI”.
Madars Dīriņš/Gints Lasmanis were definitely the fastest in the LRČ7 class, who were half a minute ahead of the experienced Estonian Karela Torpa. In the LRČ4 class, the talented Estonian, 16-year-old Japers Vahers (”Ford Fiesta Rally4”) remained unbeaten, ahead of the closest followers by almost 27 seconds.
Rally results:
2024-01-21 15:50:00
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