Leonard Patrick Lepsi. Photo: Raimonds Volonts
The new season of the Latvian-Lithuanian rallycross championship started in Biķerniekos during the past holidays, where 80 participants took part in the first stage. In the SUPER 2000 class, in the competition of 11 athletes, Lennard Patriks Lepsis celebrated the victory, for whom this was the first victory in rallycross! With this victory, Leonard Patrick gave himself a great gift on his recently celebrated 18th birthday!
“I tried rallycross for the first time in 2021, where we rented a Ford Puma. At that time, in the final stage of the season, I won 3rd place. In 2022, my dad and I decided that we should try to start a full season, where we also bought this Toyota Celica car, which we are still starting with now. Therefore, this will be my third season in rallycross at the moment,” he says in a conversation with the portal Go4speed Leonard Patrick Lepsi.
Photo: Raimonds Volonts
After last season, Leonard Patrick and the team decided that improvements should be made to the car, and this also gave the desired result in the first race. “In last year’s championship, we finished fifth in the SUPER 2000 class (3rd place was won in three stages). We realized that in order to be even faster, we need to work on the technique. The biggest change this year is that we bought new shock absorbers, which also made the biggest difference. Yes, there was a challenge with the damper adjustments, but we managed to fine-tune them for this stage. The speed was also surprisingly good, which in the end gave us our first win. The first victory is always and remains special,” the athlete does not hide his joy.
Before the season, the athlete’s goal was to fight for the Top 3, but after the first stage, the driver admits that now he has everything to set even higher goals. “Yes, before the season, the goal was to fight for the Top 3 positions, but when I saw that I had the fastest time in the time control, I realized that I had to try to fight for the victory, which was also successful. It is a great pleasure to have managed to win my first rallycross victory in such a fierce battle where the competitors were very strong. Of course, various improvements can be made to the car to make us even faster, but even now, after such improvements, we can already fight for victory. Now we will have to try to keep this result.”
Photo: Raimonds Volonts
The athlete’s plan this season is to complete the full season of the Latvian Lithuanian Rallycross Championship, but it is possible that Lenard Patriks will ride in another discipline and other competitions for training purposes.
When asked why he chose to compete in rallycross, Lepsis admitted that rallycross is more close to his heart. “I started driving more seriously with a car on the track in 2017, when my dad still had a track. I participated in winter car sprints there. After that I tried folk racing, but now I’m already in rallycross. Why not autocross? When I tried rallycross, I liked it very much – a change of surface, interesting tracks. If he had tried autocross first, who knows, maybe he would be driving autocross now. Although last year I drove Mārtiņš Stark’s “Ford Puma” in one stage of the Latvian autocross championship (8th place in the Smiltene stage). It was interesting, but rallycross is still more close to my heart.”
Photo: Raimonds Volonts
At the end of the conversation, the athlete says a big thank you to his team, without whom his starts would not be possible. “Of course, the biggest thanks goes to my family, who always support me! I, the mechanic Raivis Biezais (he is also Lenard’s spotter during the competition) and dad Jānis worked on the car mostly. I would also like to say a big thank you to Jānis Augulis, who works for us on the gearbox, Andris Vītolas, who helps to adjust everything in the power stand, and Yuri Kulikovskis, who helped us prepare and adjust the shock absorbers this winter. There is strength in the team!
