South Racing’s father and son duo of Jürgen and Daniel Schröder tackled the Columna Medica Baja Poland, round nine of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, and missed out on a seventh-placed finish in Szczecin after a last stage electrical problem plagued their Nissan Navara.
The German duo have tackled select rounds of the prestigious off-road series this season and found a competitive pace from the outset over a variety of bumpy and rocky tracks though a nearby military training area.
Action got underway with a 7.08km super special stage on the Friday evening (August 31) and the German duo recorded a time of 6min 37.5sec to storm into seventh position in the overall standings behind half a dozen semi-professional and professional drivers in factory cars.
That performance stood them in good stead for the first of two runs through a 222.60km stage at the military training ground in Drawsko Pomorskie on Saturday morning. The Germans were eighth fastest on the opener and slipped to a similar position in the overall standings behind Petr Hozák.
The South Racing crew beat their previous time by 5min 24sec on the re-run of the stage at the military training ground and were rewarded with the sixth quickest time to reach the overnight halt in Szczecin in seventh place.
Action concluded with two passes through two shorter Krekowo and Lubieszyn off-road stages in the nearby Dobra municipality before the ceremonial finish in Szczecin on Sunday.
Schröder clocked the sixth quickest time through the first stage and retained seventh position through the second one. He maintained his position in the re-run of Krekowo but suffered an electrical issue on the final stage of the event and missed out on seventh overall.
2018 Columna Medica Baja Poland – results after SS7 :
1. Jakub Przygonski (POL)/Tom Colsoul (BEL) MINI John Cooper Works Rally, 5hrs 27min 45sec
2. Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL)/Lukasz Kurzeja (POL) MINI John Cooper Works Rally, 5hrs 31min 19sec
3. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) Toyota Hilux, 5hrs 44min 41sec
4. Martin Prokop (CZE)/Jan Tománek (CZE) Ford Raptor RS Cross-Country, 5hrs 48min 41sec
5. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Bartosz Momot (POL) Ford F-150 Evo, 5hrs 50min 31sec
6. Petr Hozák (CZE)/Marek Sykora (SVK) Hummer H3 RS, 6hrs 18min 22sec
DNF. Jürgen Schröder (DEU)/Daniel Schröder (DEU) Nissan Navara
Nil Perkins,