‘As soon as we left the dust, it was fantastic!’ says Bernd Jaeger with his famous VW T3 Rallyebus. ‘Can you imagine the fun we had in the sand?’ Racing together with Breslau ‘ancien’ Ton Stoker in the Desert Warrior and Gregorz Brochocki in the Dacia Duster, they covered almost 200 kilometer of roadbook, creating sand storms on the Polygon while the Extreme Class cars and trucks battled in the swamps and rivers.
Riding his XT600, Jonathan Molenaar has his first Breslau. He is living the ‘adventure rallye’, racing and enjoying the sand of Poland. ‘There is so much sand here, fantastic. I will come back as a better rider. The XT600 is perfect, but I had to clean the airfilter using the exhaust of a fellow biker – it was just full of sand and dust, incredible!’
Finishing as first car, Ton Stoker is happy and careful with his words. ‘It takes only mistake to mess everything up,’ he says, and he knows from the many years he raced and won here with his Iveco truck. ‘The Desert Warrior is a fantastic vehicle for the sand and the tracks here in Poland, and we have little maintenance to do. Anyone can dream, but we are only on monday.’
Trying his luck as a navigator, Gilles Girousse is enjoying himself. ‘Can you imagine how many good drivers and cars we have at the start here? I think the top of Europe is racing, with Jim, Franck and many others!’ Gilles went all in today on the extreme sections, he is not just a driver but he lives the race.
From father to son – as Luc Raufie cannot compete anymore, his son Eduard takes the wheel of their Land Rover Tornado. ‘I still cannot believe it!’ he says. ‘I grew up with the Breslau, with my father in the race and now I have to opportunity to compete myself!’ It must run in the family, as he scores a good 5th position today, together with his co-pilot Yann Girard.
Martin and Matthias Hertwig lost time flipping their Suzuki on the side. ‘But there was another competitor who stopped and helped us right away, very friendly. I think we lost maximum ten minutes, but our biggest problem today was the dust. It came in from all sides, so we are closing all the holes in the car..’
When Franck ad Francoise ran out of fuel 500 meter before the finish, Jim Marsden stopped and towed them to their first place today. Sportsmanship is for everyone, an excellent example of the special competition on the Rallye Breslau Poland this year.
The battle in the Big Truck Extreme ranking is fierce and fun – as Alexander Paas broke down in a swamp the other truck teams came to the rescue. ‘That was a great moment,’ says Alexander with a big smile. To go into the mud and water with a big truck is something special, as no one arrives at the finish line alone.
Tomorrow stages of 138 km and 113km with a service stop in between make for a grand day on the Drawsko Polygon. Starting from Konotop the teams head deep into the forest on a generally fast stage with a high average speed. For the navigators it will be a more relaxing day, the drivers will push the throttle and fly across the sand!
Track description
Almost 200 kilometres of sand and forests on the Drawsko Polygon, with separate stages for the Bikes and ATVs and for Side by sides, Cars and Trucks. It will be a day for the fast navigators, as they have to keep a close eye on the road book in order to fully understand the logic of the stage and the right way to the finish.
For the Bikes and ATV’s there is no lack of sand, passing along the military training grounds, shooting targets and barracks. The competitors in the Side by Side, Car and Truck class head west into the forests, passing the plains on ‘azimuth’ or compass heading before diving back into the forests of Drawkso Pomorskie.
The Extreme class sees the best of the Polygon, famous for its tough natural challenges. Swamps, steep descents and river crossings will make for an interesting day in this class, reflecting the origin of the ‘adventure rally’ the Breslau has always been.