On Tuesday morning, the organizers of Fenix rally announced that due to strong winds, the
first section of the day had to be replaced with another one, which was scheduled for
Thursday. As a result of this change, the total number of sports kilometers on this day has
been reduced by eighty. The CFMOTO RACING TEAM athletes, who took first and second
place in their class yesterday, stayed at the top of the leaderboard today, although they did
not hide that there were the extremely difficult and dangerous moments.
Antanas Kanopkinas, who finished first in the ATV class yesterday, said that everything was
fine today, and he followed the team tactics with his teammate Adomas Gančierius - they
rode together. First speed section was led by one and second by another athlete. This tactic
allowed the athletes to remain in high positions - A. Gančierius was first today, and A.
Kanopkinas was fourth, slightly less than two minutes behind his teammate. In the overall
quad standings, men share first and second places.
Memories hindered the smooth running
After completing both of today’s speed sections, the athletes said that the second, 131-
kilometer-long, speed section was difficult and sometimes even dangerous.
"It was very difficult to drive the second special stage, because last year I had a lot of
incidents and two crashes there. It was difficult to concentrate and think clearly while
driving in the same places, but I managed to finish successfully. "Everything is basically fine
and we are where we should be - the first two places in the overall leaderboard belong to
us," said A. Kanopkinas after the finish.
CFMOTO RACING TEAM rider Adomas Gančierius agreed with his teammate about the
difficulty of today's tracks and was glad that he managed to overcome them not only
successfully but also quickly: “The third day is really very successful. The tracks were very
fast, in the first section it was mostly pedal to the metal. There were very dangerous places
and turns in the second speed section. In many places it was not possible to drive through
corners at a high speed, because they turned in such a way that it was easy to get off the
track to the nearby rocks.”
The athlete also said there were many ditches not marked in the road book, but he was
happy with the successful finish and that ATVs stayed in one piece.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, a very long day awaits the participants - they will have to cover 252
sports kilometers and more than 200 kilometers in liaison. The composition of tomorrow’s
two speed stages, according to the information provided by the organizers, looks similar to
today. The first stage will have more than 70 percent of sand, and the second will meet
athletes with a hard surface. The first participants will start at about eight o'clock local time.