Last Saturday in Zante, Latvia, the second stage of Enduro Rally was held and CFMOTO Factory Racing Team, participated in it.
The past two weeks were rather intense for CFMOTO Factory Racing Team as they had to prepare for and participate in two contests. On the last weekend of June, they competed in the first stage of Enduro Rally contest and as soon as a week after, the team’s flags could already be seen in Latvian town Zante.
For the second stage of Enduro Rally, CFMOTO Factory Racing Team delegated its three fighter vehicles - the new SSV CFMOTO ZFORCE 1000 SPORT and the two CFMOTO CFORCE 1000 ATVs.
The most successful performance this time was executed by ATV drivers Adomas Gancierius and Mindaugas Blockis. The duet managed to win the fifth place among 16 participants in pair driving contest.
“The event was a great success. The weather was decent and there were practically no dust on the track. Personally, I enjoyed the cross style speed section the most. Although we weren’t the fastest in it, the ride was pleasant and fun.
The extreme section, which was full of logs, ires and other obstacles making the track more difficult, required a lot of endurance and vehicle reliability. In that section, we were among the fastest as our ATVs have longer wheelbases and were perfectly suitable for that particular track. We didn’t drive through any of the so called “Chicken Lines”, To avoid the obstacles; we kept on going on the main track all the way, which was genuinely challenging.
My colleague Mindaugas had set a good pace, so we managed to reach the finish line together every time in all four speed sections. Moreover, after the last contest, we found a solution for the engine overheating problem - we Have put on another kind of protective screen, therefore this time we faced no such issues.
Overall, I am satisfied with the result. Of course, we were trying hard to reach the winners’ podium and it is a shame we lacked so little but the result showed that we are capable of fighting for prize winning places. We fell behind by 20 seconds from the third place, which is substantial yet undoubtedly achievable.
In the orientation part, we had to overcome 96 kilometers. We managed to reach all points and made no mistakes, therefore we finished first overtaking all competitors”, said Adomas.
At the same time, Antanas and Audra Kanopkinai with their CFMOTO ZFORCE 1000 SPORT SSV, experienced their own amount of adventures.
The pair didn’t manage to step onto the winners’ podium, however the pace they were demonstrating as well as their mutual communication and technical solutions they managed to find during the time in the SSV started to pay off.
“There were six SSV's participating in our class while we were the only ones starting with CFMOTO vehicle. The orientation part required a significant amount of focus; it was interesting yet very complicated, therefore we needed to go through it carefully but fast at the same time. The organizer had prepared a variety of tricks and I am happy that we managed to solve them all.
The speed section, which we needed to overcome twice, allowed us to enjoy the ride fully as our vehicle had been reawakened by our talented mechanic Darius Biesevicius and the feeling was delightful; suspension , brakes and acceleration were all extremely smooth. Of course, we can’t compare our vehicle with the more expensive and powerful ones that our competitors drive but we are glad that step by step, we are going in the right direction and improving more and more with each contest.
I believe the only thing we were lacking this time was a better steering capabilities from the vehicle as we had to go into reverse quite often. Besides that, everything went well and we managed to save the vehicles from damage The team did an amazing job and the mood was highly positive. Therefore, I would like to thank everyone, including media guys, who were basically falling under the wheels to get good coverage, and the mechanics, who helped us tremendously.
We also say ‘thank you’ to our competitors in the speed section as well as our colleagues in the orientation part - we were sticking together and helping each other along the way. The atmosphere that everyone created was incredible”, said Antanas after the contest ended.
It is not the only contest abroad, which CFMOTO Factory Racing Team has in their calendar for this year. In the beginning of September, the team is planning to perform in the Hunt The Wolf contest in Romania and right after that, without even returning to Lithuania, the team will leave for Rallye Breslau marathon in Poland.