The Portuguese Toyota crew of Francisco Barreto and Paulo Fiuza took full advantage of an uncharacteristic mistake by early leader Joao Ferreira to clinch a vital victory in the 40th Baja Portalegre 500, round six of the FIA World Baja Cup and the seventh round of the FIA European Baja Cup, on Saturday
The three-day event was held in mainly dry and dusty conditions through the Alentejo region of eastern Portugal and the SVR Toyota duo hit the front on the first of the longer stages on Saturday morning when team-mates Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro crashed their Hilux and damaged the gearbox trying to regain the track.
Barreto stayed clear of trouble through the final stage to record victory over the SSV category-winning duo of Gonçalo Guerreiro and Pablo Moreno in their Polaris RXR Pro R with a winning margin of 3min 09.9sec.
Barreto and Fiuza also claimed maximum points towards their FIA World Baja Cup challenge and are now two of the favourites to challenge for the Drivers’ and Navigators’ Championships after their outright success at the Italian Baja in the summer.
Barreto said: “A great day but a tough one, especially the last stage. We were leading the race, our nerves were on edge and we had knots in our stomachs. We fought hard for this victory all day. Paulo did an excellent job. We had that setback in Morocco but he’s recovered 100% and did a fantastic job.
“The final result is what mattered here and we stayed focused and were sensible to the end. It’s a dream come true. Winning Baja Portalegre is a dream for every Portuguese driver!”
The local SSV crews of Pedro Carvalho/Romeu Martins (Polaris) and Luís Cidade/Valter Cardoso (Can-Am) finished third and fourth but were not registered for either of the Baja Cups. Likewise, Daniel Silva and Goncalo Magalhaes finished fifth and topped the Challenger category in their MMP T3 Rally-Raid, but were not registered for the FIA championships.
That opened the door for sixth-placed Dania Akeel and Sebastien Delaunay to guide their Overdrive Racing Toyota to vital points for finishing second in the FIA World Baja Cup.
The South Racing Can-Am Team’s Mitchel van den Brink and Bart van Heun tightened their grip on the FIA World Baja Cup’s Challenger class by finishing eighth overall and picking up points for third in the FIA World Baja Cup. They were the only registered Challenger team competing in the FIA World Baja Cup championship in Portugal.
Lionel and Lucie Baud lost vital minutes on the final stage and that dropped them down to 12th overall and fourth in the FIA World Baja Cup standings in their petrol-engined X-Raid Mini JCW Rally. South Racing Can-Am Team’s Erik van Loon and Wouter Rosegaar were a distant fifth of the FIA World Baja Cup runners in 20th position, but topped the SSV standings. Khalid Al-Jafla and Andrei Rudnitskiy rounded off the FIA World Baja Cup’s Ultimate finishers in 35th overall.
The bragging rights in the FIA European Baja Cup went to the 13th-placed Portuguese Rio Seco Racing crew of Ruben Rodrigues and Rui Paulo in their Can-Am Maverick R. They won the SSV category in the European series and finished one place in front of Marek Kubicek and Artur Kordala, who won the European Challenger category and strengthened their lead in that competition following the retirement of rivals Dinís Rogeira and Nelson Ramos.
Filipe Lopes and Tiago Magalhaes finished 16th and picked up points for third in the FIA European Baja Cup (second SSV), while Paulo Rodrigues and Fausto Mota were fourth (third SSV) in the second of the Rio Seco Racing Can-Am Maverick Rs. The Hungarian duo of Lorinc Meszaros and Albert Horn were fifth in the European rankings in their G Rally Team G-ECKO and classified in 32nd overall.
Ruben Rodrigues’s success has set up the prospect of a thrilling SSV showdown at the final round next month.
Fernando Barreiros teamed up with Jose Sw Pires in his customary Isuzu D-Max and topped the Stock standings after registering for the FIA European Baja Cup on this occasion. The Portuguese was classified in 36th.
The Saudi Nissan duo of Majed Al-Thunayyan and Omar Al-Lahim finished second in the section for series-production cross-country machines and managed to get the better of their Saudi rivals, Al-Mashna Al-Shammeri and Abdullah Al-Shammeri. They finished 40th overall, fourth in Stock and second in the FIA World Cup category but have now scored from six events to their rivals’ five.
Andrei Halabarodzka and Aleksei Ignatov (Toyota) are putting in a late challenge for European Stock success and finished third in the category and second in the European series. They continue to trail Barreiros and Pires with one round to run.
Sixty-three of the original 65 entrants made the start with 11 chasing FIA World Baja Cup points and a similar number opting for the FIA European Baja Cup. Herlander Araujo did not start in his Polaris RXR Pro R.
A short Prologue of 5.02km at Herdade das Coutadas was held in dry and dusty conditions and determined the starting order for the opening stage of 72.01km between Ponte de Sor and Crato.
Ferreira stopped the clocks in 3min 59.0sec and beat local Challenger driver Ricardo Porem by 7.8 seconds to claim the early bragging rights. Joao Ramos edged Ultimate rival Luis Recuenco for third and SSV front-runner Luis Cidade was fifth.
FIA World Baja Junior front-runner Hedda Hosas dropped over 14 minutes and was pushed to the rear of the field with niggling pedal sensor issues, but the result enabled Ferreira to opt for first on the road through the opening stage. The three-time event winner was again the class of the field in his SVR Toyota and a time of 56min 23.3sec enabled him to take a lead of 25.3 seconds over Cidade into the night halt.
Porem came home in third and led the Challenger category from the fourth-placed SSV of Guerreiro and Barreto in the second of the SVR Toyotas. Ramos settled into seventh and topped the FIA European Baja Cup rankings and eighth for Mitchel van den Brink was sufficient to keep him in control of the Challenger points in the FIA World Baja Cup. Hosås’s problems on the Prologue prevented her from tackling the first stage. She eventually ended up 39th of the 40 finishers.
Ramos retired from sixth overall at the start of the second day and there was more drama at the head of the field when overnight leader Ferreira made an uncharacteristic mistake on the opening 172.08km stage, left the road and damaged his Toyota’s gearbox.
As he explained: “It was my mistake, right at the beginning, even before kilometre five. I went off the road into a big ditch and damaged the gearbox. It was an incredibly amateurish, ridiculous mistake, but it is what it is.”
Barreto went on to claim the stage win, inherited the lead in the FIA World Baja Cup rankings and headed into the second stage with a 1min 16.6sec lead over new SSV leader Guerriero.
Baud and Akeel moved up to third and fourth overall, ahead of Daniel Silva and Pedro Carvalho. Van den Brink was third of the FIA World Baja Cup runners but SSV contender Tomasz Bialkowski stopped his Polaris early in the stage and retired. Ruben Rodrigues led the FIA European Baja Cup runners from Kubicek.
Both Jose Rogeira (Ford Ranger) and Challenger title contender Dinís Rogeira (Can-Am) retired from the battle for crucial FIA European Baja Cup points.
The final timed test ran for 186.18km. Porem topped the times before a 10-minute penalty for a wheel infringement dropped him from ninth to 18th in the final results. The third quickest time enabled Barreto to claim a famous win and maximum points in the FIA World Baja Cup.
The FIA World Baja Cup continues in Qatar on October 29th-31st, while the FIA European Baja Cup concludes in Hungary in mid-November.