I took my trusty Toyota Corolla 4WD wagon, a winter daily driver, to the Press Rally in Lithuania and finished last. The rally, organized by the Lithuanian Journalist Auto Club, is a weekend-long event held in late May, comprising 15 autoslalom stages around the country. It's a significant and popular event, attracting competition drivers and media alike. 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).
I've done the rally three times before, and this year, I brought my brother along. We chose the Corolla because it still had a valid inspection and seemed reliable. However, we encountered some issues along the way. The car's exhaust had a hole near the oxygen sensor, causing the CEL to light up. We drove to Helsinki for repairs, and the ABS light stayed on. With a new sensor, an oil change, and a set of Toyo Proxes tires, the Corolla was ready for the rally.
The rally started with a demo drive around the cone course, and we got nowhere, missing cones and driving too slowly. We scribbled notes in the road book and headed for the official starting line. The first course was done twice, and we took last place, but didn't miss any cones. We set ourselves on the right track and drove to special stage 2, a karting track in Anykščiai.
The Corolla drove fine and didn't scrape its wheels or chew up the outer edges of its tires. It corners level and the 4WD distributes power to the rear even in asphalt driving. We had lunch at the karting track and looked at the other classes battling it out on the course.
After an hour-long transit to Panevėžys and a handling track there, the first day ended at the Kuršėnai autodrome after eight special stages. Despite a good effort, we made a cone mistake in Panevėžys and were slow in Kuršėnai. We entered the second day with the idea that we'd defend our position from the much faster Peugeot.
However, we discovered a near-grave mistake: the road book was missing. We found it at the reception counter, and the Peugeot team had it. We started off towards the parking lot of the Svyturio Arena in Klaipeda, and the Peugeot guys pushed their 306 after it broke down. We rushed through our second stint and helped them.
The mission changed: we needed to finish without penalties and take the last place with honor. We didn't catch the Sandero, but we didn't get penalties other than ten seconds for hitting cones. In the overall results, the Sandero team beat us by two minutes and 22 seconds.
The Corolla performed superbly, and we were happy to have done the trip with my brother. We haven't done anything like this in ages, and it felt like time well spent. 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 about what to bring.
