Rallye Breslau: Lithuanian Point of View on LEG1
By Stephan Wolf
The first special stage of the Breslau Rally wasn’t a walk in the park for the four-wheeled competitors. The 145 km distance, with 121 km against the clock, was a challenge for the competitors. The tank training area in Zagan tested both man and machine.
Rollovers, technical problems, including the leader’s, punctures, difficult navigation and insufficient fuel to reach the finish line forced some competitors to push their cars to the finish line by hand.
Let’s hear from the Lithuanian competitors as they share their impressions of the day.
Rytis Juodsnukis:
“The good news is that today we ran the first special stage (or more accurately, two smaller special stages) and finished. The route was really, really, really, really difficult! There were such potholes and bumps…
I’ve only ever seen that in locations where only tanks drive. And we drove a Can-Am on a track like this. There were a lot of problems - a puncture, then the engine overheating.
But the most difficult thing was navigation, we lost a lot of time on it. Very happy that we finished. On the track we saw a lot of competitors who had not finished yet - someone stopped with breakdowns, someone was lying on the roof at all… A very difficult day really”.
For the crew of Aivaras Kavaliauskas and Ernestas Česokas (BRO Racing) the first special stage was successful, but full of adventures. Despite a fuel problem in the final part of the route, they finished in the Top 10 of the SSV category.
Ernestas Česokas (co-driver Aivaras Kavaliauskas):
“It’s my first rally in Breslau as a co-driver and today we had a fantastic special stage. Unfortunately, we ran out of fuel at the finish line. So we had to push our Can-Am for the last hundred meters of the distance and lost some time. The entire route was difficult to navigate, but we made it through and finished. Saw a few buggies that had crashed. So it’s great to be here at the finish already”.
A great result belonged to the crew of Marius Damavičius and Albert Veliamovič (Team No Stress), who finished third in the SSV category.
Marius Damavičius and Albert Veliamovič:
“Very difficult day, we are very tired today. A really hard track, very difficult to navigate. We got lost a couple of times - if it hadn’t been for the excellent work of the co-driver, we might not have even finished. We thought that in such conditions we would finish somewhere in the Top 30, but in the end we were in the Top 5! Paradoxically, when we got lost, we were even happy - it means that this is really Rallye Breslau and not some other race.
The new Can-Am Maverick R takes some getting used to - it’s a completely different vehicle, not like the old Maverick X3. It’s bigger, heavier - it’s no longer an SSV, but a small car. Very high fuel consumption - you should also take this into consideration in the future”.
Mindaugas Povilaitis and Slavomir Volkov (Toyota Hilux) started very successfully in the Cross Country Car Open category.
Slavomir Volkov (co-driver Mindaugas Povilaitis):
“This is the third start for me at Rallye Breslau. And every time the race surprises me with some new surprises. It was a very challenging, but really interesting day. Difficult navigation, but we successfully completed the route. There is an interesting novelty at the current Rallye Breslau - a new road book. This new roadbook really proved its worth today, and thanks to it, there were fewer mistakes than usual, as there are often very confusing routes and difficult navigation here. Looking forward to continuing the fight”.
Photo Credits: RBI Media, teams social media
