The participants of the third stage of the World Rally Raid Championship, which is being held in Portugal, have finsihed the second race day. In total, they had to cover 166 special stage kilometers, which did not spare muddy challenges. CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team's ATV riders provisionally recorded third and fourth places in their class.
"The day was traditionally wet, the track was narrow. The worst thing was that I got stuck in one puddle. In fact, a winch would have helped there. There were many motorcycles stuck in one place, so I had to improvise, but the improvisation didn't work. Everything was going well until that moment, but I wasted about a couple of minutes there, and then I was a little bit distracted afterwards", said Antanas Kanopkinas after reaching the finish of the day and said that the day's adventures did not fundamentally change the situation and did not spoil the result.
Today, he took fourth place, a little more than seven minutes behind the class leader M. Andujar. Another athlete of the team, Gaetan Martinez, recorded the third time in the quad classification, just three seconds separated him from the second place.
"Everything went well today. At the beginning, the track was very fast - the GPS showed even 128 km/h. It's really fast with a quad bike. Then followed a very wet and sticky place where many motorcycles were stuck, Antanas also stopped there. I managed to pass without getting stuck, and then I maintained the pace in the narrow sections between the trees, with many sharp turns", said G. Martinez and was happy to be able to ride at a fast and comfortable pace.
Tomorrow, the first day of the two-day marathon stage awaits the participants. On Friday, the participants will have to cover more than 600 kilometers - 373 on special stage and 242 liaisons. After starting in Grandola, Portugal, the athletes will spend the night in Badajoz, Spain.