Giti-sponsored Truck Team Holten’s modified Mercedes 1622 800HP secured a hard fought seventh place in Rallye Breslau 2022, successfully completing its third consecutive year on just one set of Giti tyres.
Held every year in Poland and described as the ‘Dakar of Europe’, the race is recognised as one of the world’s leading extreme off-road events with teams having to battle a 1,300km, five-day cross country rally programme on a mix of exceptionally difficult terrains.
The Netherlands-based team entered two vehicles in the Extreme Trucks category, both driving on Giti GAO897 Off Road tyres in size 14.00R20, with the Mercedes team excelling with seven top ten finishes in a field of 17.
This year saw the introduction of the Hannibal Stage, a night marathon which took drivers and their vehicles into an unknown, pitch-black area with just a road book to guide them through the wilderness.
The team’s Scania 4×4 630 started well, completing qualifying and the first few rounds before succumbing to a broken rear drive shaft at the end of stage four. Unfortunately this meant missing the night stage, however they managed to make repairs before the final leg to finish the race.
Short and full videos which brings the full Rallye Breslau experience to life can be viewed here.
Hans Van Geest, driver of the Mercedes, said :” I have driven for three years on this one set of tyres. It’s unbelievable in this rough terrain with many stones, unexpected wood spikes and bumps that can take the tyresover two metres in the air that I’ve never even had a flat tyre.”
“The tyres and suspension are the most important things in a rally like this, you need the grip and the tyre needs to be on the ground,” added Scania navigator, Guido Vredenberg. “If you don’t have a strong tyre or if you don’t have grip, you can have 1,000 horse power but you can’t do anything with it.”
Maikel Follon, Technical Field Engineer for Giti Tire and tyre support for Rallye Breslau, concluded: “This is the ultimate test for our tyres, if they can handle this you can trust them anywhere.
“It’s incredible on these surfaces that the tyre still manages to go up to 70˚ Celsius while naturally the air temperature dramatically increases also, so we can see what types of pressures our tyres can handle and how they are performing at that moment.
“All this information is then used by our teams around the world, including our European Research and Development Centre in Hannover, Germany, as they develop the next generation of everyday tyres for cars and trucks.”