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 | Ladoga Trophy: The Polish teams in the Russian Trophy by Pawel Roslon (2).
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After a ceremonial start in the historical center of St. Petersburg, all the participants of the "Ladoga Trophy 2011 "moved 120 kilometers north, nearer the Ladoga lake. It was the location of a 12 kilometer special stage, whose prime difficulty consisted in crossing wet meadows.
The Polish Marcin Lukaszewski and Magdalena Duhanik won the 5th place in the Proto class. The second Polish team backed out of the course of the stage not to overrun the time limit. Another Polish team starting in the TR3 category also encountered problems, and didn't show up at the camp at midnight. On Sunday, after the 11 kilometers SS, the entire motorcade will move to the next camp.
"I never thought that it can take as much as four hours to complete 11 kilometers", Marcin Lukaszewski comments. "The most characteristic element today were the floating meadows of extremely varied character and many trecherous holes. We are learning to "read" the terrain and to choose the right way across it."
Lukaszewski added: "A few times we were in serious trouble and had to resort to the off-road accessories that we seldom utilize, such as hi-lift, or sand tracks. We are moving along a corridor plotted out by the waypoints and what we see on the GPS doesn't always correspond to reality. We were also hit by failures; right after the start we punctured our cooler and we needed to constantly replenish water in it. We also need to replace the clutch pressure plate."
"Our car may look a little different than other participants' cars, who clearly customized their cars for this very competition, but it is still a mighty machine. We are surely equipped with not perfect tires, but we are learing how to optimize our movements here. We caompleted the stage, within the time limit, that's what makes us happy. The ball's still rolling, we''ve still got lots to drive."
2011/06/08 | 16:24 CET | ARTICLE: MR/SY/ROSLON
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