| Everything you can drive in the off-road, you could find today in the Balkan Offroad Rallye. ‘I know this type of terrain, it is like my home!’ says Philippe Musy, who is racing his Unimog in the truck class. Today three specials made the day, with fast tracks on the plains, a fantastic climb to over 2000m and finally a long and technical special to finish the day.
Frank Stensky wins the car category, a welcome chance from the long days with technical and practical issues on the car. ‘Today we gave it all,’ he says, happy to beat Cholakov on the stage today. Third is Desislav Slavchev, who is careful on the rocky stages.
The hunt for Richard Oguez and Delphine Delfino is open – the leaders in the Side by side ranking had some issues with the navigation today but manage to keep their first place in the overall ranking. Tsanko Tsankov and Jerome Pelichet are chasing them, finishing first and second, ahead of Meinolf Duenninghaus, who is third with Stefan Henken. ‘It was rather nice,’ says Stefan, with a feeling for understatement.
Arunas Gelazninkas is the fastest motorbike today, even though he was lost some time together with his teammate Aidas Bubinas. Only Frank Modl separates them in the ranking, coming in as second bike at the end of the day. ‘I was careful in the mountains today. I try to find a way to drive a nice pace, in which I don’t make too many mistakes with the navigation!’
Jean-Francois Ryo is able to win the Car Limited class today, driving in a straight and concentrated way through the mountains. Their main opponent is Patrycja Brochocka in the Dacia, who lost her front suspension after a jump. ‘My father helped me to reach the finish-line, he gave me his shock absorbers! Teamorders he said, it helped me a lot!’
There was bad luck for the Bomba team, losing three tyres in the mountains on the fast stage. ‘We finished on the rims!’ Adam says, losing time. Also Aleksander Piorczynski had problems with the tyres on the rocky mountain stage. ‘I was racing too fast, I did not think!’ he says. ‘Loosing a tyre on the quad is bad, because I cannot easily replace it. But I managed to finish!’
Tomorrow the first marathonstage will run from Starosel to Dunyi at the Black Sea, with four long specials and over 580 km! With the distance the stages are fast, and the final special goes into the hills near the coast, close to the border with Turkey. It will be a long and demanding day, on which we will see the next step in the marathon of the Balkan Offroad Rallye 2018!
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Balkan Offroad Rallye Day 3 – ‘The Pinnacle of Off-road!’
You cannot imagine the stage today!’ says Jim Marsden, winning the day ahead of Franck and Francoise. ‘We drove up a rocky river, with stones higher than the hood of the car, climbing out of the canyon only to enter a valley filled with trees and wood, and no tracks to be found!’
Racing in the backyard of the organisers, the stage today was a fantastic summary of all the off-road possible in Bulgaria. Making it a tough day for everyone, in which many of the competitors in the extreme class did not reach the finishline before sunset. Battling in the dark, in the woods makes for a fantastic adventure, something you have to do at least once in your live!
‘I could not believe my eyes on the special today. It was so beautiful, there was such lovely and wild nature, incredible. Sometimes the stages are very hard for our Toyota, but my pilot Ron is very good. Today we have broken the driveshaft, so we have to work our way out of the stage with only front wheel drive and the winch. It was a challenge, very tough. But it’s a race, so we go for it!’
Driving up a small stream hidding beneath the grass in a gulley, the Mauro brothers worked hard to get their Suzuki through the tough terrain. Taking the winch from tree to tree, they managed to pass. ‘Our front locker has broken, so we have a lot of difficulties passing otherwise simple obstacles. But we managed to finish the day!’
In the ranking the battle is between Jim Marsden and Franck Daurelle. ‘Franck is a very strong competitor, if we lift he is on our tail,’ says Jim, who seems to easily master the stage with his 700hp trophy car. ‘This is the pinnacle of off-road, on these stages we can use all our knowledge and experience in off-road.’
‘Sometimes the difference between the cars seems very big,’ says Franck. ‘But we are only 20 minutes behind Jim today. And what a day it was, I have never seen this before! Perhaps the organiser should make different routes for the more standard cars, but for us this is magic off-road!’
The distance and the toughness – tomorrow will be a day to remember, the longest day of the Balkan Offroad Rallye in Extreme class with 200km special stage. Crossing the mountains and hills north of the Trakian Plains on their way from Starosel to Dunyi at the Black Sea, the teams will have to focussed, from the beginning until the end.
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Text: Niels Hatzmann
Photo credit: RBI Media
