The summer rally season opened last weekend with the Lithuanian Automobile Rally Sprint Championship, in which the Samsonas Motorsport crew of Martynas Samsonas and Ervinas Snitkas took part. After almost a year off, Martynas returned to a 4WD car he knows very well – a Hyundai i20 VRT manufactured and prepared by MV Sport. The return to the special stages was enhanced by pre-event testing, during which the optimal car set-up was found and both the Samsonas Subaru 6-speed gearbox and the special dampers worked ideally with double-wishbone suspension.
The event took place on Saturday, where 4 very long and fast gravel stages awaited and the day ended with a very short sprint through the city stage. Martynas and Ervinas had serious competition during the rally from really fast drivers with factory cars, but the 2023 Lithuanian champions took matters into their own hands and blasted through the day, winning 5 out of 6 stages and claiming victory by 22.57 seconds.The speeds were breathtaking: the 16.49 km long SS4 was completed at an average mindblowing speed of 147.3 km/h. It was a great training event before the Lithuanian Rally Championship kicks off in two weeks at the “7bet Rally Lazdijai”. There, the Lithuanian duo will also compete with the MV Sport Team and their car, while the new Subaru Impreza VRT project is under development.
The other team from the Samsonas family, consisting of siblings Kajus Samsonas and Maja Samsonaitė, also had a very strong rally. They finished an impressive 16th overall and 2nd in the 2WD+ class with their BMW E46.
