Rallye Breslau, finish: Lithuanian festival
By Stephan Wolf
This year’s anniversary Rallye Breslau was successful for Lithuanian competitors in many categories — won special stages, finishes on the podium and in the Top 10/Top 20…
Arūnas Simanavičius, SSV (Asima Racing): “How was the race for us? The start of the race was controversial. Successfully started the prologue, then a good tempo rotated with various small incidents. On one of the first special stages we followed someone’s Toyota for almost 50 km without the possibility of overtaking, we lost time. On another special section we drove 60 km with a punctured rear tire, we didn’t even notice it - we thought it was just hard to drive in the sand.
Fortunately, there were no more problems later, either mechanical or navigational. Of course, it was a little frustrating to lose the battle for the win. But the most important thing is that we completed the whole distance of Rallye Breslau, fought for victory until the last moment, finished on the podium. This is a race with a lot of factors and strategies. If you’re able to do something on the track, you do it. If you can’t do something, you fight and finish. So we are really happy with our success! And now we are hugely motivated to participate in Rallye Breslau again next year”.
Emilija Gelažninkienė, SSV (Rentway Dakar team): “I’m just happy right now — we are at the finish line of Rallye Breslau again and have now taken third position in the overall SSV standings! Last year we finished eighth in our category here, and this year our goal was to finish on the podium. And we together with my husband Arūnas and the whole team did it!”
I am grateful to all those who supported and sponsored us, thanks to which we had the opportunity to take part in Rallye Breslau again. The high level of competition, 68 competitors in our category only - and I was the only female driver in the SSV category. I hope that next year at Rallye Breslau there will be many more female competitors. It is very important that women can take part in any competition, start anywhere (including Dakar), make their dreams come true.
I always have the pleasure of coming to Rallye Breslau - it’s always interesting here. Breslau always has very hard, difficult and demanding tracks, really complicated navigation. And all this brings a lot of emotions. Very happy that almost all Lithuanian participants finished here, including five bikers from the AG Dakar School team“.
Rytis Juodsnukis, SSV (Rytrama racing): “We finished, with a very good result. I said a week ago that our goal is to get into the middle of the SSV classification, if possible to improve this result. It worked out even better - if I’m not mistaken, we even finished the race in the Top 20. Rallye Breslau is really a very interesting race, with all its specialties. Some parts of it we drove very well, some parts worse. We couldn’t avoid breakdowns, especially at the beginning of the race when we broke three axle shafts in one day and lost at least two hours.
But then we adapted to the local specifics, found the optimal rhythm and avoided all problems - both with driving, mechanical and navigational. Our mechanics have made excellent preparation and tuning of the Can-Am - no errors, no accidental breakdowns, no mechanical failures. We could fully concentrate on driving and navigation without being distracted by any technical problems. We are happy that we were able to finish here. I would love to come to Rallye Breslau again in the future. All the Lithuanian participants and I were here as one big family. And it was the best!”
Mykolas Paulavičius, SSV (co-driver Ignas Udra, BRO Racing Team): “We are finally at the finish line of Rallye Breslau. The race was very fast and dynamic, but it was really hard. The tracks are very challenging, the stress level is maximal. Also, for me it was my first start as a co-driver on an SSV. Many, many different episodes, incidents, adventures. But we finished, and very close to the top 10”.
Albert Veliamovič, SSV (co-driver Marius Damavičius, Team No Stress): “Well, our Rallye Breslau is over. It was the fourth Breslau for me. And, unfortunately, also unsuccessful. We had serious goals in this race. And in the first days we showed that we were capable of finishing regularly in the Top 5 or Top 10. However, our Can-Am Maverick R is a very new vehicle that still needs to be tested and improved. Just in the conditions of Rallye Breslau it became clear that even the newest equipment has its weaknesses.
For example, one bolt in the suspension often breaks - both for us and for other competitors on the Maverick R. That bolt caused us to lose the whole race two days ago. After that we just tried to show the best times on the rest of the special stages, with no chance for high positions in the overall standings. We will try to prepare even better in the future and then come to Rallye Breslau again next year and finally achieve success”.
Slavomir Volkov, Cross Country Car Open (co-driver Mindaugas Povilaitis, Toyota Hilux): “How did the final day turn out for us? Honestly, today it felt like we weren’t driving a cross-country rally, but some sort of extreme-trials. Lots of fragments with puddles, water fords, real swamps. We crossed the river, and at the exit we couldn’t go up the slope for a long time - a lot of mud, the car slides. We probably lost about ten minutes there. The race, as usual, was very, very difficult, but we were able to overcome everything, finished and were the winners.
The organizers have prepared a really cool race this year - good roadbooks, great navigation, minimum errors in organization. But from my point of view, it would be even better if Rallye Breslau was made more like a cross-country rally, with less extreme routes. What I was really happy about was our Lithuanian success in this race. There is a victory, there are podiums, a lot of our racers finished in the top 10. When you look at the results of the race you see a lot of Lithuanian names! And it’s really cool!”
Photo Credits: RBI Media, teams social media
