Drawsko Pomorskie is a quaint town in northwestern Poland, a stone’s throw away from Szczecin, that frequently roars to life with the sound of tanks and heavy army machinery as the Polish Land Forces and their NATO allies conduct exercises at the Colonel Franciszek Sadowski Land Forces Training Centre. This weekend, however, the grounds will instead hear the sound of rally cars and motorcycles.
The Baja Poland is the fourth round of the 2024 FIA World Baja Cup and one of various cross-country rallies that are held each year on the Drawsko Training Ground. The Baja Drawsko is held there in April as part of the Polish Cross-Country Rally Championship while the Rallye Breslau, the largest amateur rally raid in Europe, takes place in June.
Following the town’s liberation in World War II, the Drawsko camp opened in 1946 for Polish troops and eventually those from the Warsaw Pact. Britain’s 7th Armoured Brigade was the first NATO unit to train there in 1996, three years before Poland joined the military alliance, and their arrival immediately made Drawsko the largest such area used by the British Army.
At nearly 350 square kilometres in size, it is one of the biggest military polygons on the continent. Drawsko features a plethora of environments to properly simulate various battle conditions including deep sand and water crossings, all of which have been used by rally organisers to create a twisting, technical route. Rallye Breslau makes full use of these through the Extreme categories, which are for larger and heavier vehicles than standard cross-country cars.
“Quite tricky to navigate: lots of different tracks and junctions, very soft sand, lots of blind crests,” Yazeed Al-Rajhi‘s co-driver Timo Gottschalk told Cross-Country Rally News. “To go fast here, you have to be completely confident in the roadbook.”
The Baja Poland’s remote service park for the first stage is located on the training ground’s Bucierz shooting range, which is used for live-fire armoured warfare exercises.
Given the location, the Baja Poland mandates various rules to comply with army demands. For example, racers and their crews are required to provide identification like passports or European Union ID numbers when registering.
Article 17 of the race’s supplemental regulations cannot state this enough, proclaiming that “these are strictly controlled military zones with special rules for usage and behavior. The military training areas of 12th Mechanised Brigade and CSB Drawsko is a hospitable and highly respected partner of 2024 Columna Medica Baja Poland and organiser fully complies with the agreements and the requirements of the military training area and will not tolerate any infringement against the established rules.”
As such, restrictions include prohibiting race vehicles from being on the training grounds outside of during the race, while media must receive special permission whereas service trucks can only drive on a designated route. Drones are not allowed to fly over the training zone for obvious reasons.
Albert Veliamovič, the navigator for Karolis Marcinkus, is no stranger to Drawsko as a multi-time Breslau competitor. Still, he noted that “no matter how many times you start at this range, it will still be difficult. The route always has many complications and surprises. Challenging navigation, a lot of roads, turns, junctions, different potholes and sand waves on the road.”
Other rallies on military installations include the FIA European Baja Cup’s Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura and Hungarian Baja, respectively at the Base General Menacho de Bótoa and Hungarian Defence Forces Bakony Combat Training Centre. Breslau is split between Drawsko and the Żagań army base; the settings mean the rally must operate and adapt according to their hosts’ demands, which includes modifying the route if NATO and Polish forces need it for their training.
The Prologue on Friday was held in Szczecin before heading to Drawsko for the two Selective Sections on Saturday. Sunday will see the race conclude back at Szczecin.
Krzysztof Hołowczyc is the defending winner.
