The Rally Albania competition will take place in Albania on June 5-12. During the
week-long marathon, participants in the categories of cars, motorcycles, ATVs
and motorcycles will race Albanian desert. The name of the CFMOTO Factory
Racing Team is also on the list of participants. The team delegates its entire team
to Albania.
Both atvs of the CFMOTO Factory Racing Team - Adomas Gančierius and Antanas
Kanopkinas - will travel to the Albanian Rally. Darius Biesevičius and Audronė
Kanopkinienė will also start here. The duo will drive SSV. According to the head of the
team Antanas Kanopkinas, it was decided to go to Albania after the organizers declared
that it would be the most difficult Rally Raid competition. Once again, the team that took
part in competitions of various formats abroad decided to check the promises of the
organizers.
"We have not been to Albania. It will be interesting to see how difficult it will be, because
judging by the photo and video material there's a lot of stones, riverbeds and water. I
think the terrain will be something like the Hunt The Wolf race in Romania, and we have
been there many times. However, I don't think there will be such difficult tracks like in the
Hunt The Wolf competition. It is a Rally Raid format, so there will be higher speeds,
”Antanas Kanopkinas shared his thoughts.
The Albanian Rally is scheduled for seven race days. One of them will be dedicated to
the prologue, and all the other days participants will face really serious challenges and
long distances. The marathon section, which will have to cover 700 km and spend the
night separately from the mechanics, promises a lot of intrigue. In total, participants will
have to cover over 1,500 kilometers per week.
"Before the Albanian Rally, we checked not only the racing equipment, but also the
technical condition of service vehicles and media cars of our team. The Auto Spot also
found minor issues that have been taken care of. The media team pickup truck will also
be there to help if mechanics need to get to us in difficult to reach places. This is heavy
artillery and we have no doubt about its necessity from the experience we had in
previous competitions.
As for the improvements in race vehicles, there have been some. The most important
thing is to make everything work. We had about 100 km of tests. We received new toys
for ATVs from friends in Finland - "Vauhti Varikko" and "Performance by Sercap". From
them we received new parts to improve engine power. In the short run, everything
works, everything is fine. We will now be able to test this at greater distances. In each of
our competitions, there is not only competition but also component testing. After them, it
becomes clear which solutions we continue to use, which need to be abandoned or
improved, ”said Antanas Kanopkinas.
From Lithuania to Albania, the whole team will travel by land, so the first challenge will
be to cover a distance of about 2500 km to the start of the competition.