On November 7 and 8, the first race in the vicinity of Split “GAME OF STONES 2020” was held, organized by Extreme enduro Solin.
Saturday, November 7, was the day for the race, and on the second day, enduro gatherings and free rides were organized.
There were two classes, Expert and Hobby, and the order at the end of the day was:
-Expert-
1.Mirjan Rabar 2h05:33.5
2.Antonio Cvitković 2h10:25.4
3.Danijel Kolesarić 2h29:56.9
-Hobby-
1.Maro Žitković 1h14:47.7
2.Frane Bebić 1h28:10.6
3.Dino Balaško 1h28:20.5
We talked to the organizer of the event, who shared his impressions from the first race in this part of Dalmatia.
Hello Ante. I have to admit that we are all pleasantly surprised with the new race, considering that this year the races are mostly canceled. Would you tell us for a start how you decided to make the race, and how old is that idea actually?
The idea is actually not as old as we as a team do not drive for a long time, the idea was born in the fifth month of this year. When others could make a race why wouldn’t we try too, stacking and cleaning the track took two months, we pulled three garbage trucks out of various parts of the track, cleared over 10 miles of the new route and merged with the existing routes.
Looking at the name “GAME OF STONES”, we assume that the ground is mostly heavy, rocky. What are the impressions of the competitors?
The name “GAME OF STONES”, you can conclude, came from the stone, but we were guided by the fact that the famous TV series “GAME OF THRONES” was filmed in the immediate vicinity of the Kliška Fortress, so we somehow combined it with each other. The terrain is mixed, mostly rocky.
The impressions of the competitors are such that we ourselves could not believe what we had achieved, all the competitors exported the track except for a few of them who remained in damage. On the track, they could see tunnels, streams, bridges, rocky terrain, forest, mud and a minimal section of macadam roads that served well for the competitors to “rest” from the difficult terrain.
After all, what are your impressions and do you plan to introduce some novelties next year and possibly add another competition day?
Our impressions are great, we are satisfied with everything, everything went without injuries, most importantly, without any problems with the competitors, the public and the locals. I repeat again, everyone has passed the track, which is very important to us. The expert class drove two laps of the track and had some harder sections, the hobby class drove one lap of the track which is 23 kilometers long.”
Of course, the plan is to make a prologue for which we simply did not have the time or space this year, it is also planned to change the track, add some sections and “pepper” a bit.
Thank you Ante, we hope that next year there will be a lot of competitors from several countries, as well as that the Balkan Hard Enduro team will be at the start of “GAME OF STONES 2021”!
Thank you and I hope to see you at the start of the first weekend in November 2021.
