I took my trusty Toyota Corolla 4WD wagon, a winter daily driver, to the Lithuanian Press Rally and finished last. It was a challenging but rewarding experience, and I'm glad I did it with my brother. The rally, organized by the Lithuanian Journalist Auto Club, is a popular event in the Baltic States, attracting competition drivers and media alike. The cars that take part are typically hot stuff like BRZs, MR2s, Porsches, and tuned BMW compacts. Registration opens in the spring, and the slots usually fill up rapidly. For the press class, it costs 350 EUR ($400) to take part, and for the sport class, 770 euros ($900).
My Corolla, a 2000 model, is one of the last 4WD Corollas sold new in Europe. It has Toyota's Full-Time 4WD, which means it gives as much as 50% power to the rear axle via a viscous coupling. The car performed well, and didn't scrape its wheels on the arches or chew up the outer edges of its tires. It corners quite level and the 4WD surely distributes power to the rear even in asphalt driving.
The rally started with a demo drive around the cone course, and we got nowhere with a bunch of cones missed and generally a very slow pace. After that, we drove to special stage 2, a karting track in Anykščiai, an hour away through Lithuanian back roads. The route 119 also included some deep dips and a place a Lithuanian driver called "The old lady's jump". SS2 showed us our place, and we didn't make any mistakes, but we were still slow.
The second day started with breakfast and the discovery of a near-grave mistake. We lost the road book, and our options were finding it, getting another, or copying some other team's book. After that, we started off towards the parking lot of the Svyturio Arena in Klaipeda. The stage didn't go well, and we had to stop the car due to confusion with the cones.
The last stages were on a long downhill street in Nida, flanked by forest, and we gave it hell. We couldn't catch the Sandero despite our best efforts, but we also didn't get penalties other than ten seconds for hitting cones on one of the runs. In the overall results for the entire rally, the Sandero team beat us by two minutes and 22 seconds.
Despite finishing last, I'm glad I got to do the trip with my brother. We haven't done anything like this in ages, and it felt like time well spent. While the rally from Molėtai to Nida was 600km, it was over 2800 km (1800 miles) for us to get there, do the rally, and drive back. Soon, the Press Rally organizers confirmed that next year's event would also be driven on the Curonian Spit with stages in Nida. I'm already thinking what to bring.
