The team starting in the “Women’s Rally” for the 10th time is still figuring out the recipe for victory

Already on Saturday, the jubilee “Women’s Rally”, organized for the tenth time, will start in Vilnius. The traditional event, dedicated exclusively to ladies, attracted 200 crews this year. The ranks of the participants include both newcomers and veterans who are well versed in the specifics of such competitions. One of them is the “AODES” team. With one or another composition and name, the team has been racing here since the first “Women’s Rally”, which took place in 2015.

The “Women’s Rally” team made its debut in 2015, when this competition was held for the first time and a modest duo from Panevėžys started in it – Rūta Markelevičienė and Lina Paulikevičienė. She then chose the name “Gatas Verdes” for her start and took to the track in a green and white Mitsubishi Colt prepared for slalom competitions.

And although the crew did not break into the ranks of the prize winners in the debut race, it was the first acquaintance with these events, specially intended for women. Already the following year, the composition of the team has changed. Together with driver Rūta Markelevičiene, Sandra Nevulienė and Vaida Kuojienė also started in 2016. As it turned out later, it was this core of the team that remained until today – only the fourth member of the team kept changing in the crew.

In 2017, this team from Panevėžys participated in the “Women’s Rally” for the third time, and the crew won the title of “Most exciting team”. With the same composition, only Auresa, the official Toyota car dealership in Panevėžys, started in 2018 as well. This time, the crew stayed a bit away from the podium. By the way, from that year on, in every Women’s Rally, the crew raced exclusively in Toyota cars – Corolla, C-HR, RAV4 models.

The team’s hour of glory struck in 2019. In one of the largest “Women’s Rally” competitions in history, where almost 400 female crews started, the Auresa team won the second place in the absolute standings.

In 2020-2023, the name of the Auresa team was almost always among the first couple of dozen teams in the final line-up of the Women’s Rally.

This year, 2024, the team of girls from Panevėžys also decided not to miss the cult “Women’s Rally”. It is interesting that team driver Rūta Markelevičienė is generally one of the few participants of this competition who has not missed a single “Women’s Rally” in ten years.

For this year’s start, the girls’ team from Panevėžys kept the tradition of starting with a Toyota car and chose the Corolla Cross model for this. True, this year the team has a new name partner. It became the four-wheel brand “AODES”, which is represented in Lithuania by the companies “Motoway”, “Mototop”, “VM Moto”, “Kerolain”, “Autodanielius” and “KurMoto”. This year’s team consists of Rūta Markelevičienė, Sandra Nevulienė, Vaida Kuojienė and Inga Leliukienė. In the 2024 Women’s Rally, the crew will start with number 115.

Rūta Markelevičienė, the driver of the team, says that every year the rally gives new emotions and adventures and, regardless of the position in which you manage to reach the finish line, you want to come back here every year.

“During the year, the girls and I participate in more than just this rally. We try to go wherever we can. But this “Women’s Rally” is a cult, the biggest event with the biggest competition. It is this excitement that encourages us to come back here every year.

Of course, as the Lithuanian car slalom champion, I would like to see as many figure driving events as possible in such competitions, where the result is determined by the skill of the driver, but “Women’s Rally” is a much broader concept.

Both the navigator and other team members play a big role in it. Only with joint efforts can we solve all the tasks quickly and accurately, get to the checkpoints on time and on the right way, and overcome events that are not related to driving and that require turning your head.

Our main goal is to have a good time and get an adrenaline rush, but we will not hide that we are always watching the leaderboard and want to be as high as possible. Thus, sporting interest and the fight for positions still remain one of the priorities of our team. Especially since we always feel a responsibility towards the team partners who believe in us and support us fervently”, said Rūta Markelevičienė.

The traditional “Women’s Rally” will start on April 27 in Vilnius, Gediminas Avenue. During it, the participants will have to overcome a distance of almost 400 kilometers with special events and tasks.