Giti Tire-sponsored Truck Team Holten has successfully finished one of the world’s leading extreme off-road events, the Rallye Breslau in Poland, requiring only one set of Giti tires.
Described as the ‘Dakar of Europe’, the Netherlands-based team entered a modified Mercedes 1622 800HP and a Scania 4×4 630 in a field of 28 vehicles in the ‘Extreme Trucks’ category. The event comprised of a five-day, 1,300km cross country rally program across some of the most difficult terrains imaginable.
Driving on Giti GAO897 Off-Road tires in size 14.00R20, both units managed to successfully navigate Monday’s course, but severe damage to the front axle of the Scania finished its race on Tuesday.
On Tuesday night, the Mercedes successfully navigated the dunes stage to stand in 9th place, and on Wednesday travelled cross country to the second base at Gwda Wielka, holding in 12th position.
The tires, vehicle, and drivers faced worsening conditions on Thursday, when clear skies gave way to rainy weather. This made conditions treacherous, but despite a broker rear suspension which lost 20 minutes, the team finished in 7th place.
After a long night fixing the truck for the final stage, Friday saw an outstanding performance which resulted in an overall standing of 8th place at the highly competitive event.
Stefan Fischer, Managing Director – Product Technology at Giti Tire Europe, said: “It is almost impossible to describe what the tires go through at the Rallye Breslau. With deep mud, craggy rocks, mountains, sand, and rivers, plus extreme forces they are subjected to, they really do face every object imaginable.”
“So to say that we suffered no critical tire damage or punctures the whole race and that the drivers were really happy with the tires in both wet and dry conditions is a huge achievement and testament to the quality of Giti tires.”
“As with track motorsport, we will now take these tires and study their condition to see exactly what we can learn, and this information will be considered across not just our truck and bus ranges, but our light truck and passenger car portfolios as well.”
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