Moments of horror, Sonik and Wiśniewski together at the finish line of the Sardegna Race Rally

‘If it had not been for Kamil, I wouldn’t have reached the finish line of this race,’ said Rafał Sonik, who rolled four kilometres before the finish line of the special section of the last stage of the Sardegna Race Rally and got severely bruised. Despite huge pain, Rafał Sonik managed to reach the finish line with the help of Kamil Wiśniewski, followed by 80 km of an access road, just to receive the trophy for finishing the race on the second place, with a wince of pain on his face.

As he was getting near to the finish line of the stage, Rafał Sonik found himself on a rocky turn. At 80 kmph, a used rear tyre of his quad lost traction on the road covered by fine gravel and fell into a small ditch. The rider went up in the air, and his quad rolled a few times. ‘This turn was very slippery and I was really lucky, because it could’ve ended much worse. It was good that Kamil arrived there a dozen or so minutes later. Without him, it would’ve been very hard to drive on,’ he said.

‘When I drove up, Rafał was sitting at the road and the rolled crushed quad was far behind. Rafał wasn’t feeling too good and he was severely bruised. I drove up to his Yamaha. It didn’t look good: the handlebar was all bent, navigation was broken, steering column and the rear axis were bent. We managed to set it on its wheels and to restore it to a condition that allowed me to tow him to the section’s finish line,’ said Kamil Wiśniewski.

At the section’s finish line, the service team was already waiting for them and made some further quick repairs. Then, both Polish riders went on to the finish line. ‘I had to stay close to Rafał, because something else could break down in his already damaged quad, and there would be no one to tow him to the finish line,’ said the younger quad rider.

Both Poles celebrated their joint success at the ramp. Rafał Sonik winced with pain as he received his trophy and emphasized that he reached the finish line of his seventh Sardegna Race Rally only thanks to Kamil. ‘He was a true friend! I’m incredibly grateful!’

‘I’m going straight to he hospital after the podium decoration and I hope nothing is broken. I feel huge pain as I breathe, so I might have a few broken ribs. The x-rays will show what happened to my bruised left knee and the pelvis,’ concluded “SuperSonik”.

Final results of the Sardegna Race Rally:

1. Sebastien Souday (FRA) 13:58.56
2. Rafał Sonik (POL) +3:42.37
3. Kamil Wiśniewski (POL) +10:22.13