A week-long rally in the Sahara Desert starts in Tunisia on Sunday, and a few days before it
all teams gathered at the start to pass the technical and administrative checks and make
final preparations for the challenge. The members of CFMOTO RACING TEAM say that both
the trip to Italy, from where the ferry departed for Tunisia, and all the pre-start procedures
went smoothly.
"The trip to Italy was quite comfortable, this time we left more time for ourselves. There
were no problems with the customs, as last year, so we were very satisfied with that,” said
Antanas Kanopkinas, who will be starting in this rally for the second time.
Antanas said that during the first half of the day, the team installed a bivouac and
performed the necessary technical work for ATVs, followed by tests at a nearby quarry and a
technical and administrative checks.
Another racer of the team, Adomas Gančierius, said that the trip was long, but at the same
time interesting: “We spent a lot of time with the team on the trip, and as always, there are
also various challenges during the trip. After all, everything is fine, I am ready to start. I got
the second starting number, so I have to open the rally - it will be very interesting."
The athlete said that many challenges ahead are waiting, but at the same time he has a lot
of desire to reach the finish line.
Technical tests and first failures
As soon as CFMOTO RACING TEAM arrived in Tunisia, the racers rushed to test their
equipment, which had undergone some improvements in the last moments before the rally:
new shock absorbers were installed and some engine components were replaced to
increase its power. Before the start, the team members said that it is no secret the fact that
they didn't know much about the reliability of these improvements, as some parts were sent
directly from the manufacturer on behalf of their testing under extreme conditions.
"We did tests in the gravel quarry, and experienced some technical problems, which we are
very happy about. It is very good that this happened during the tests and we managed to
solve it ourselves, and we also adjusted the shock absorbers properly," said A. Kanopkinas.
The athlete was pleased that all the improvements were working exactly as expected and
the engine was feeling much more dynamic. According to A. Kanopkinas, it remains to be
seen whether all these changes will work well not only in the short but also in the long run.
The athletes successfully passed the technical commission on Saturday and now the whole
team is preparing for a difficult rally week. The Fenix Rally starts on Sunday, during which
participants will have to cover more than a hundred special stage kilometers. Overall, in
seven days, almost one and a half thousand kilometers of special stages and more than 800
kilometers of liaison awaits athletes.
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