Rallye Breslau: Lithuanian Point of View on LEG2
By Stephan Wolf
The difficulty level of the track at Rallye Breslau is increasing every day. As a result, many competitors encountered various problems on the second stage today….
Rytis Juodsnukis, SSV (Rytrama racing): “A truly challenging and difficult day. We had some problems yesterday too, but we got over them quickly. But today was really hard - it all started with the fact that we quickly got a punctured tire. We changed the tire, drove on. But already in the first quarter of the distance there was a smell of burning rubber.
We realized it was the smell from the rubber on the axle shaft - naturally, we quickly lost that axle shaft. As we tried to drive on, we lost the second axle shaft - only one front and one rear axle shaft were left. On the second half of the special section, after the neutralization zone, we had only one axle shaft left in working condition. We had to make a big repair right on the track, managed to restore at least two axle shafts and somehow finished the race.
Unfortunately, we didn’t finish within the time limit - we were either five or ten minutes short. But we are not giving up and are ready to continue our fight tomorrow. Navigation was difficult today, but we made almost no mistakes. Only once we took a wrong turn in the wrong direction, but we quickly got back on the right course. All of our problems today were not navigation related - they were just technical problems”.
Marius Damavičius, SSV (Team No Stress): “It was really complicated and interesting on today’s special stage. Especially when we started the second lap on the local track and everyone started overtaking each other - it was obvious that this was the real Rallye Breslau! All dust, lots of bikes, very difficult to overtake. We passed Emilija Gelažninkienė, who asked us to pass her, and then we tried to find the way in the dust for some time.
There were many incidents, one of the riders on a bike fell right in front of us. After this signal, we decided not to take any more risks in the thick dust and slowed down a bit. We chose a safe pace and finished without any big adventures. We are still waiting for the official results, but we hope that we managed to finish this special stage in the Top 10”.
Jonas Raudeliūnas (Jonelio ATV Pro Service Team Manager): “This is the fourth or fifth time I have participated in Rallye Breslau. First I came here as a driver, and now I am the team manager. This year we brought seven vehicles to this race, with a very good line-up of drivers. Rallye Breslau is really a very difficult race, very different from many other races. It’s really interesting here. It’s a unique vacation and fun.
What about the second stage? It was a quite difficult special stage. A lot of dust on the route. It is still very difficult for participants when racers on bikes, quads, SSVs, cars, trucks start in a mixed order. The conditions were truly challenging. And yeah, yesterday we crashed one car.
I think we put together the strongest team this year. Of course, it is not without problems and time losses. But there are two or three crews who are fighting for the top places. The crew that has already participated in the Dakar this year - Emilija Gelažninkienė and Arūnas Gelažninkas are fighting for finishing at least in the top 10 - is going very well. Both of our Estonian drivers are also achieving good results. Many guys in our team just live cross-country rally, participating in races for fun”.
Photo Credits: RBI Media, teams social media
