The sixth President’s Cup is already in the collection of the winners of the rally “Around Lithuania” Vytis Pauliukonis and Audronis Gulbinas
On Sunday afternoon, the traditional three-day rally “Around Lithuania” finished in S.Daukantas Square in Vilnius, the participants of which compete for the most honorable award – the Transitional Cup of the President of the Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda.
The rally has been organized by the Lithuanian Automobile Club (LAC), founded in 1926.
Numerous awards were presented at the finish ceremony, many of which were won by non-athletes, but the most famous chord went to the winners of the rally – Vytis Pauliukonis and Audronis Gulbinas.
After reading the congratulations of President G. Nausėda to all the participants of this event, his advisor Paulius Baltokas together with the main organizer of the rally, LAK President Rolandas Dovidaitis, presented the main rally trophy to the winners.
The absolute winners of the rally also won the SGC-4 class.
The price of the sixth cup is two gearboxes
V. Pauliukonis and A. Gulbinas, the driver of the Subaru Impreza STI, became the most titled winners of the all-time rally “Around Lithuania” and surpassed Rokas Lipeikis and Saulius Girdauskas, .
The winners of this year’s rally for the previous five President’s Cups are in luck in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020.
“The rally was interesting, and its tracks were quite technical and fast,” navigator A. Gulbin told the public relations agency Visus Bonus before the awards ceremony. – On a rather narrow gravel route near Žagarė, on the Latvian border, our average speed was 120 km / h.
It was a lot of fun to race in Rokiškis, on the Getautė track near Telšiai, but the berry on the cake of all the tracks is, of course, the European level Vilkyčiai cross-country track. ”
According to A. Gulbinas, there were not so many competitors this time, but they were all serious. The trouble is that their ranks began to crumble after noon on the first day due to broken technology.
“It simply came to our notice then. It costs two loads of tidy and replaced gearboxes, Audronis said. “Luckily, they broke down at the end of the day’s competition.” Then we lost our weapons. ”
During three days of the competition – 1 min. 33.9 sec deficit
Three days of persistent fighting and a shortage of just under two minutes. It was this lack of time that separated the second prize winners from the rally winners – Tomas Kažemėkaitis with Saulius Šuopis, who were driving a BMW 325.
Vice-Minister Vilius Semeška congratulated the rally vice-champions and winners of the SGC-3 class and presented the cup of the Minister of National Defense.
SGC-1 class winners Aurimas Margevičius and Andris Tostychas enjoyed the third prize in the overall rally and won the Cup of the Minister of Education, Science and Sports, with whom they were congratulated by the Deputy Minister Linas Obcarskas.
The third prize winner, who drove a Mitsubishi Colt, was 2 minutes behind the winners. 39.1 sec.
People who can do anything
The Minister of Social Security and Labor, Monika Navickienė, who took part in the finish ceremony, particularly praised the initiative of the rally organizer LAK to invite people with disabilities to the three-day competition.
They have been participating in the Rally Around Lithuania Rally since 1996, when the race was revived after 65 years of silence.
“It simply came to our notice then. These are people with the greatest powers and worthy of the greatest respect, ”said Minister M. Navickienė.
She warmly congratulated the winners and prize-winners of this classification and awarded her cup to the winners Mečislovas Trinkūnas and Linas Četkauskas, who drove VW Golf to the victorious finish.
Tadas Makūnas and Stasys Tarailė took the second place with the BMW 318, and the family crew of Rolandas and Rimvydas Šukiai with the Daimler Chrysler C220 took the third place.
The crew of Agnė Mažeikienė and Renata Karpavičiūtė, who had competed successfully with Honda CRX, won the tenth place in the overall standings.
Ramūnas Dilba, Chancellor of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, congratulated the ladies on this lady and presented the Minister’s Cup.
LASF President Egidijus Janavičius won the SGC-4 and V. Pauliukonis, the winners of the general standings, with A. Gulbinas.
Rain of mayors’ cups
The tracks of the Rally “Around Lithuania” ran through more than 20 municipalities, and its participants competed for their mayors’ cups. So it was not surprising that S. Daukantas Square was simply poured into the cups of mayors.
The winners of the President’s Cup V. Pauliukonis and A. Gulbinas were happy to add the trophies of Saulius Margis and Algirdas Meiženis, the mayors of Ukmergė and the mayors of Pakruojis and Šilalė district municipalities.
The fastest crew of women A. Mažeikienė and R. Karpavičiūtė in the rally were awarded the cups of Anykščiai district mayor Sigučio Obelevičius and Kretinga district mayor Antanas Kalnius,
The three rally winners A. Margevičius and A. Tostychas took out three cups – the mayors of Raseiniai, Kupiškis and Telšiai districts Andrius Bautronis, Dainius Bardauskas and Kęstutis Gusarovas.
The second place winners of two – the mayors of Mažeikiai and Šilutė districts Vidmantas Macevičius and Vytautas Laurinaitis – T. Kažemėkaitis and S. Šuopys, and Emilis Bakanauskas and Edgars Plačenis were the cups of Kaunas City Municipality Mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis and Joniškis District Mayor Vitalijus Gailius.
The duo of Gintaras Skrebulėnas and Gintė Skrebulėnaitė won two cups – Molėtai district mayor Saulius Jauneika and Kėdainiai district mayor Valentinas Tamulis.
The mayor of Kaunas district municipality Valerijus Makūnas awarded the crew of Karolis Jarmala and Darius Ikasala with his cup, and Saulius Nausėda and Vytautas Junevičius were happy with the cup of Dovydas Kaminskas, the mayor of Tauragė district.
Thanked the veterans
Motorsport veterans and drivers of historic cars also took their rightful place in the colorful rally column.
Of course, they did not cover the entire distance of 1,130 km, but were satisfied with much shorter distances.
At the finish of the rally, they were honored with gifts.