A week at the Black Sea in Bulgaria – normally nothing special for many Europeans, because the so-called “Golden Beach” is one of the most famous touristic regions in Europe. But it´s not usual when sunbathers are exchanged against motor sport vehicles and touristic excursions against high-speed rally stages. Exactly this happened on the Balkan Offroad Rallye 2017.
For the first time, the 7th edition of the rally did not take place across all Bulgaria, it was hold only in the Black Sea region in the east of the country, divided in the three camps Albena, Primorsko and Shkorpilovtsi. In six loops and two marathon stages, almost the border of Romania was touched to the north and the border of Turkey in the south. Depending on the class, up to 2402 kilometres had to be handled for the competitors.
107 teams, divided in 48 cars, 26 motorcycles, 4 quads / ATV, 21 SSV (side-by-side) and 8 trucks from all over Europe and even Dubai registered in the race. 120 people were working in the organisation behind the scenes. And with the exception of half a day, the weather also rewarded the rally with sun and comfortable heat.
A special feature of the rally was the division between the “Extreme” (EX) and “Cross Country” (CC) class. While the CC participants were forced to conquer many kilometres as fast as possible, for the trophy-style EX participants the right skill and technique was more essential on somewhat shorter distances.
For the first year there were two subcategories for both Extreme and Cross-Country classes. Those subcategories were named Cars “Open” and Cars “Limited” and they had their own standing classification.
SSV
The rally began with very fast stages – who decided to start calmly risked to be in arrears early, so the fastest strengthen their leadership right from the first day.
A good example for a perfect start we could find in the SSV class.
The Belgians Thierry Gerome / Geoffrey Noel de Burlin (Polaris RZR) secured a big lead at the very first day, extended it during the race and finished as the winners 02:02:22 hours in front of the French Frederic Baudet / Delphine Delfino (Polaris 1000) and the German-Austrian team Christian Czerny / Matthias Vetiska (Polaris 1000, +02:25:28, started on the first day as the last participant). Finally the top 5 were completed by the Belgian-Swiss duo Fabrice Della Barbera and Pascal Troyon in a Rage Buggy (+02:54:01) and the two Swiss Miroslav Kubicek / Franc Bronislav (Polaris Ranger, +03:13:20).
BIKES
This process was similar in the motorbikes category. The Austrian Beat Juen (KTM EXC530) and the German Oliver Post (KTM EXC450) settled from the rest of the field right from the start. After Post had to retire because of an accident on the third day, Juen still had a good lead – but the field catched up properly. Nearly every day there were new stage winners, especially the Dutch riders Rico van der Sanden (KTM EXC500), Henno van Bergijk (Husaberg 450), Simon Schimmel (Husqvarna 450), German Frank Weisbach (KTM EXC500), Lithuanian Irmantas Braziunas (KTM EXC450) or the Swiss Philipp Kunz (KTM EXC450) made it always pulsating.
Finally KTM driver Beat Juen won the rally in the bikes-category 00:34:44 minutes ahead of Rico van der Sanden and 01:20:10 hours before Henno van Bergeijk, followed by Schimmel (+01:41:46) and Weisbach (+01:47:08).
QUADS
In the Quads the decision of the final one-two was almost also made in the first two days. The Swiss Pierre Michel (Can Am), who drove between the first bikes, led the Dutch rider Guido Slaats (KTM XC525), while Peter Groneschild and Guido Drooghaag (both Holland, both Yamaha Raptor) lost many time at the beginning.
But the things turned: Groneschild and Drooghaag increased their speed but could not gain the lost time. And also Pierre Michel had bad luck in one day, had to leave the lead to Slaats – who did not thought about a second to give it back. In the end, Slaats won with 01:28:06 hours ahead of Michel, +05:58:43 hours on Groneschild and +26:07:46 hours on Drooghaag.
CARS CROSS COUNTRY
“Bumper to bumper” – this is the easiest to describe the race of the fast cross country cars. Last year’s winner Frank Stensky (Mercedes G Proto) was back to defend his title, but with the comeback of his son Stephan as navigator, who retired from the motor sport for the past five years to force his career. But in the fight for the victory, the two German were not alone.
To name a few, their strongest rivals were the last year´s second, the Bulgarians Doncho Canev / Zornitsa Todorova with their Buggy, the Dutch crews Schoolderman / Blankestijn (4×4 Ermelo Toyota Landcruiser) and Jasper / Blaauw (Bowler Nemesis), the Bulgarians Slavchev / Staynova (Mercedes G) Stoyanov / Radev (Nissan Navara) and Cholakov / Zhekov (Toyota Hilux) or the Bowler Nemesis crew Bomba / Bomba from Poland.
From the first day, the cars were close to each other, fighting for seconds in the daily rankings. Schoolderman, Stensky, Canev, Slavchev and Stoyanov secured the top 5 in the first days, additionally the two black Mercedes G Pickup of Stensky/Stensky and Slavchev/Staynova started their own personal duel.
The Bulgarian Toyota Hilux lost essential time after technical problems in the first days, the Bulgarian Mercedes G had to retire because of a broken axle and so the two Bowler Nemesis of Jasper and Bomba recruited the group of the top 5 and made it more colorful.
In the end, Schoolderman, Stensky and Canev were only a few minutes apart from each other while the gap to the followers went bigger – but the top 3 drivers didn’t slow down to secure their podium-places, no, they now really started to fight for the overall win. Schoolderman / Blankestijn, in the past years podium- and forth-place-experienced but never winning here, pushed their Toyota to the limits. The Stensky´s also with only 6 minutes gap in the final stage – but they forced too hard, rolled their Mercedes in the last kilometres of the race and not only lost the chance to win, they also lost the second position to Canev / Todorova, who before had 25 minutes to the leader… The top 5 were completed by Jasper / Blaauw (+01:34:05) and Stoyanov / Radev (+02:09:46).
TRUCKS
We are honest, unlike the bikes, quads, SSV and cars, in the trucks the discrepancy between the vehicles was like to compare apples with pears. Heavy-duty MAN Kat 8×8 and 4×4 or Mercedes 6×6 against an “untested” light SCORE Ford Bronco against a pink old Iveco called “submarine” – and three fast and experienced competition trucks, the starter field could not be more different. So it was clear from the beginning who will fight for the win, but surprisingly we saw a very constant race between the three pacemakers all the days.
Even the Ford Bronco of the Germans Muellenheim / Muellenheim / Glawe (well experienced with Mercedes Unimog trucks) and the Mercedes 6×6 of the Germans Neubert / Neubert / Hanuschkaewitz could sometimes keep up with the speed of the leaders – the power and driving performance of the former Dakar-Tatra 815 of Ales Loprais (now owned and driven by the team Heuer / Richter / Henschel from Germany), the former factory Kamaz (now owned and driven by the Germans Sueptitz / Steinbach / Hiller) and the self-built Mercedes-Benz with Scania-look of the Dutch crew De Wit / De Wit / Breed was imposing.
The Mercedes, Tatra and Kamaz drove their own race, all the days close to each other, sometimes like a convoy and sometimes with some gaps. Not only the technical performance, also the driving skills of the crews were similar – so finally the team with the most “painlessness” won the rally. The Mercedes of the Dutch Leon de Wit started with the most rally-experience, the truck tipped sometimes in his previous life and – sorry, Leon – looked a little “more used”.
So the Dutch crew “don´t give a sh…” on the material, pushed the Mercedes through the sometimes rugged or narrow and deep forest tracks – and gained the victory with 00:33:23 minutes lead over the Tatra 815 and +02:09:59 hours to the Kamaz. With 15:13:25 hours more the Mercedes 6×6 finished fourth, with +18:33:57 the MAN Kat 8×8 of the Germans Britz / Britz as fifth while the MAN Kat 4×4 with MAN F90-look of the Germans Paas / Buettner had to retire after the first day.
And also the Ford Bronco finally won: In the class of the light trucks, in front of the pink Iveco “submarine” of the Germans Gregor Tilch and Marcel Braehmer (who make a break for two days and almost burned their truck in the camp – but this is a different story).
CARS EXTREME
“First colourful mixed and then stable”: The easiest words to summarise the result in the extreme cars.
Highly modified prototypes met on almost standard cars – but all had the same, hard tough terrain.
The field started mixed within the first days, but then even former leaders or favourites had their problems with their material or the terrain, with intervals rarely seen before.
A battle of material through water, over rocks, trees and normally impassable terrain, supplemented with fast passages, from time to time shared with the cross country cars.
In the end, the quality of the material and skills of the pilots were decisive. France’s Franck Daurelle and Francoise Hollender of the team 4×4 Europarts won with their tough-made Land Rover Defender Prototype and a big gap of 03:41:44 hours in front of their compatriots Christophe Moine / Olivier Vailleau (also Land Rover). With 06:33:26 hours to the winners, the Swiss Daniel Vetter and Petra Kropp finsihed third with their newly “Swiss-accurate” built Toyota Land Cruiser Proto, 00:48:43 minutes before the French Mauro / Mauro in a Suzuki-prototype and 04:23:23 in front of the Italian-German duo Amort / Ruhaltinger in a nearly serial Tomcat.
