The penultimate day of the Rallye Breslau on Thursday was split into two legs in Drawsko Pomorskie, a 170.71-kilometer run in the daytime followed by a 57.54-km Night Stage.

Perhaps to be expected out of racing on a military polygon, the day leg was rife with ruts, holes, and a lot of dust and water. Jim Marsden noted his team elected to reinstall the windshield on his Defender because of the dust, which proved to be the “right call” but for the water. Most of the dust would be washed away by the Night Stage in a thunderstorm.

Given its location, the Polish Army needed parts of the course for their own purposes and ordered two Extreme checkpoints to be removed at the last minute. Another waypoint was dropped because of fallen trees. Marsden, who finished the day stage seventh in Extreme Car Open, was “not very happy with Race Control” by the late changes after they caused him to go through a “point we didn’t need to do.”

The summer heat didn’t help either. His classmate Thomas Jolliffe, already worn down after having to stop and winch on two occasions, felt ill during the closing 50 kilometers after taking the wrong motion sickness tablets beforehand. Despite the challenges, Jolliffe finished second.

While the EX Car Open side was taking a beating under the sun, their Limited counterparts took the leg off to focus on the Night Stage. Michael Betz was the only driver to do the day stage before withdrawing.

In the Cross-Country realm, South Africa’s Matthew Gird found himself in a Lithuanian sandwich. He finished the stage third, wedged between Edvard Sokolovskij and Dovydas Karkas in front of him and Tomas Marcinkevičius and Modestas Siliunas behind. Sokolovskij beat Karka by five minutes.

Karka would return the favor in the dark when he won by 17 minutes on Sokolovskij, narrowing his deficit to 2:55 going into the final leg on Friday.

Paul Spierings notched his third straight SSV stage win in the daytime, but Arūnas Simanavičius claimed the night one to maintain the top spot by 4:55 on his rival. Spierings finished the latter third as Simanavičius beat Grzegorz Gąsiorowski by 55 seconds.

Jolliffe’s (mis?)adventures continued into the dark when he realized he had forgotten to refuel the main tank just before the start. With the backup tank half full, the team decided to transfer gas over to the primary on the liaison coming to the Selective Section, filling it enough—”just below full mark”—for the 58 kilometers.

William Van Groningen swept the stages for CC Truck Big despite a broken leaf spring.

Stage 4 winners

Cross-Country

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
ATV	3	Adam Krysiak	Polaris Polska Racing Team	2:46:49.94
Car Limited	232	Ralf Berlit	Offroad Extrem II	3:19:47.25
Car Open	228	Remigiusz Wutkowski	Wutkowski Motorsport	2:22:53.46
Enduro	91	Edvard Sokolovskij	AG Dakar School	2:32:50.73
SSV	434	Paul Spierings	Rebellion Spierings	2:13:14.85
Truck Big	601	William Van Groningen	Dust Warriors	2:39:08.56
Truck Small	605	Jürgen Hellgeth	Hellgeth Engineering	3:51:05.40

Extreme

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
Car Limited	N/A	No Finishers	N/A	DNF
Car Open	301	Hardo Mere	HM Racing Team	3:05:23.96
Truck Big	651	Oliver Leyh	Team Dolmar	4:22:55.69
Truck Small	658	Felix Muellenheim	Bronco Racing	3:25:11.26

Night Stage winners

Cross-Country

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
ATV	3	Adam Krysiak	Polaris Polska Racing Team	1:00:11.85
Car Limited	203	Torsten Wilk	TH Racing	1:12:22.18
Car Open	228	Remigiusz Wutkowski	Wutkowski Motorsport	49:12.97
Enduro	51	Dovydas Karka	Dovydas Karka	58:00.39
SSV	401	Arūnas Simanavičius	Asima	46:24.64
Truck Big	601	William Van Groningen	Dust Warriors	58:14.98
Truck Small	605	Jürgen Hellgeth	Hellgeth Engineering	1:15:11.66

Extreme

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
Car Limited	321	Felix Salfitzky	Team Willibald	3:39:29.13
Car Open	301	Hardo Mere	HM Racing Team	54:59.40
Truck Big	662	Marcus Hoenig	Hoenig Racing	1:19:27.46
Truck Small	660	Patrick Toepfer	MZB	1:03:16.16

Featured image credit: Boris Barbolov / RBI Media