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Magam Trophy - Latvian lesson

The third day of competition consisted of two very long and difficult stages. We have prepared over a dozen "between the tapes" trials and a lot of stamps to get. This time the obstacles were very varied. The first of them joint passing the mud with the short traverse. But there were also the typical for this rally long traverses in the woodland, wet meadows and quite deep water. The name as "Ładoga" says for itself...

 So far our foreigner guests haven't won any of the stages, but it doesn't mean they are just a background to the other participants. The Swedes very carefully analyse every trial and usually resign from crossing the traverses. The Latvians also decided that Magam traverses are too difficult for their experience, they feel much more confident crossing the water and different sorts of muds. They have the opportunity to prove it today. When there was a vast meadow to overtake the team Boicovs/Vadins firstly threw the engine into gear and then... pushed the car! Earlier they had a careful look at the mud and chose the route. There weren't many teams that didn't have to use the winches at this stage. The leaders of this rally - Marcin Łukaszewski and Magdalena Duhanik, who won the stage on Thursday with the over half an hour advantage, can't called this stage successful. There was a really incredible tempo. On the muds they started as the first and for a long time there was nobody behind them. But the unfortunate stay in the water ended up with the big plunge and the wet computer stopped the engine. Without its "mechanic" their car was stuck in this obstacle for long minutes. Not before Jarosław Jarzębowski and Krzysztof Gołda came they saved them. This obviously influenced the results of this stage - the team took the 5th place. Robert Kufel broke two axle shafts and the route was very impediment. The Nikolajs Boicovs's earlier experience with riding in mud results with the excellent score this time.

There were a lot of interesting things happening in the Adventure Class. The previous leader Remek Moenert hit the tree and tore the steering rods out. The fixing it took one hour and because of it he fell to the third place on the third day. But it is worthy to notice that the differences in timing at this class are not big so even the tiniest mistake can change the whole classification. Apart of the thing mentioned above lot of other happens. After the entire day spent on fixing the burnt electrical installation Maciej Rachtan and Grzegorz Wolny came back to the competition. On the second long woodland traverse Wojciech Poręba and Mariusz Borowski turn their car on the side and it leaned on the tree. But what is the additional winch for? After few minutes the car was back and went between the tapes.

On our website you can find the photos from this stages, the winners and the movie.

Have a look on the participants opinions on the third day:

Remigiusz Moenert: Today's stage was very varied, I find it the most interesting so far. It consisted of the elements of trials, traverses, muds, wetlands - in one world - interesting. Unfortunately on the narrow part we hit the tree with the wheel and threw the rods from the steering and we have lost one hour to fix it. It is a shame we lost so much time because we are trying to keep the good place in the classification, but it wasn't so bad, though.

Bengt Sigeholt: Magam is a fantastic off-road adventure. It is fast and hard. We have here everything what we expected. Maybe there are too many traverses, that I just don't like (laugh). Except it everything here is just wonderful off-road route. On the traverses there are big trees, easily car can hit. We are not used to it. So we'd rather focus on keeping our car in one piece and reach the finishing point on Saturday. Of course we feel the pressure of competition but then we remind ourselves we are here for fun. For the first time we won't vie with each other. I hope we encourage the other cars from Sweden to join in next year. Now we just observe, we don't have the car good enough for this route, but so far it goes really well.

Vilnis Zeiza: I feel like a beginner on the traverses, but on the muds - like a leader. What is my receipt for driving on this area? I am really surprised that you stick to one route. We are always trying to take the new way. Today we fell in a big hole, luckily the car didn't sink but "swim". But we stayed on the bottom. By us, it is usually that way, that if you tear the upper layer, it is not so deep. It was also the new experience. What is Magam Trophy? I haven't prepared my car specially on this occasion to better understand the differences in rules. I didn't want to come as a participant, more as an engineer.