The dates for the 2023 edition of the Spanish Off-Road Rally Championship, which will have six races, are already known.

The competition will start on March 24th in the province of Andalusia, specifically in Jane, for the Rallye TT Jaén Mar de Olivos, a race that returns to the championship after a few years of absence.

A few weeks later the competition will travel to the capital of the province of Extremadura, Badajoz, to compete in the Baja TT Dehesa de Extremadura, which for the second year in a row will be again eligible for the CERTT and the FIA European Cup for Cross Country Bajas. In addition, the Spanish race has the additional incentive of being punctuated for the super competitive Portuguese championship, which in 2023 will be even more interesting thanks to the arrival of several vehicles of the new category T1+ being already known several Toyota Hilux, a Mini T1+ and remains only to realize whether or not the Prodrive Hunter that will be based in the Portuguese city of Evora will compete in Iberian competitions. The Baja TT Dehesa de Extremadura, scheduled for the 14th, 15th and 16th of April is the second biggest Spanish competition, behind only Baja Aragon.

At the end of May it will be Baja Lorca - Ciudad del Sol, in the Murcia Region, which will take place on May 26th and 27th.

On July 22nd and 23rd the main Spanish event will take place, the Baja España - Aragon, which will once again be hosted by the city of Teruel.

The end of the championship will take place in September, a month that will host two races. The first race will be held on September 1st and 2nd, near Zaragoza, and will be the Cierzo Rally Zaragoza. Then, on September 29th and 30th, Guadajara will receive the participants for the last race of the season, the IX Rallye TT Guadalajara.

Provisional calendar of the CERTT TT Championship 2023

• March 25th and 26th Rally TT Jaén Mar de Olivos
• 15th and 16th of April Baja TT Dehesa de Extremadura
• 27th and 28th May Baja Lorca Ciudad del Sol
• July 22nd and 23rd Baja Aragón
• 2nd and 3rd September Cierzo Rally Zaragoza
• 29 and 30th September Rally TT Guadalajara

Rally-Raid Network
Source RFEDA

The Italian Baja of Spring on the dirt roads of the Pordenone foothills

Who will be the first to send the fateful coupon to the race secretariat? Starting today you can register for the 13th Italian Baja di Primavera - Artugna Race (March 10-11) and the official countdown to the Italian Cross Country and Ssv Championship 2023 begins. Organization by the Fuoristrada Club 4x4 Pordenone and race headquarters confirmed at the Interporto Centro Ingrosso of the capital city on the banks of the Noncello, tangent to the A28 highway link road from Portogruaro to Conegliano.

Route obviously top secret until the delivery of the road book shortly before the start, but track that will unravel in the piedmont countryside between the municipalities of Fontanafredda, Polcenigo, Budoia and Aviano, able to enhance the speed qualities of the vehicles and the technical skills of drivers and navigators.

Crews and teams will have a month to clear their reservations about competitive commitments, while just three days ago, between Friday, Feb. 3 and Saturday, Feb. 4, the 2022 year closed with the Aci Championships awards ceremony at the Palladio Theater in Vicenza. Just right here to recall the best of the past season, with the hope that the new one, too, will be hard-fought and spectacular throughout the events on the calendar.

Automatic translation from the Italian version
Source Italian Baja official press release

After last year's great success, the historic one-make series repeats with the exciting formula that admits to the start any off-road Suzuki, of any era and with the most disparate types of homologation. The Suzuki Challenge takes place over six trials within the prestigious Italian Cross Country Rally Championship.

Filed a 2022 that saw it win its 15th consecutive Manufacturers' title in the Italian Cross Country Rally Championship and the Casco D'Oro award for the Best Single-brand Trophy, Suzuki is once again ready to be a major player on the national off-road scene with the 24th edition of the Suzuki Challenge.

In the upcoming season, the historic one-make series reintroduces the exciting formula introduced last year. On the strength of its more than 50-year tradition with 4x4s and their proverbial reliability, the Hamamatsu company has decided to admit to the start any off-road Suzuki, of any era and with the most diverse types of homologation. The Suzuki Challenge thus allows a large number of enthusiasts to take part at reasonable cost in the prestigious trials of the tricolor CICCR and to try to win the rich prize money up for grabs.

A trophy open to all
In 2023, the Suzuki Challenge is counting on the registration of a large number of enthusiasts, to the delight of the public and the competitors themselves, who are always happy to take part in a gripping and hard-fought series with the utmost respect for the rules and opponents.

Crews will be able to compete in all kinds of Suzuki off-road vehicles, from Samurais to Grand Vitaras, via Jimmies and Vitaras, belonging to T1, T1 national, T2 and TH groups. To ensure that everyone has a chance to win, the rankings will be drawn up by applying specific scores to the best-performing prototypes and simplified prototypes, as well as to production-derived cars and competition cars with older homologations.

This approach, designed together with organizer Emmetre Racing, allows those with older but still efficient cars in their garages to bring them back to race and have fun at a reasonable cost, on magnificent and selective courses, as well as in a first-rate organizational framework.

Six breathtaking races
The Suzuki Challenge has always made the quality of the tracks one of its flagships, and the upcoming season will certainly live up to tradition. This 24th edition will be spread over six races, the same ones on which the calendar of the Italian Cross Country Rally Championship 2023 will be based.
Among other things, some of these events will be of international relevance and will allow participants in the one-make series to challenge the best performers in the specialties.

Suzuki Challenge 2023 calendar.
March 10 - 13th Italian Baja di Primavera-Artugna Race (Friuli)
April 15 - 1st Baja Colline Metallifere (Tuscany)
May 17 - 10th Rally Greece Off Road (Greece)
July 6 - 30th Italian Baja (Friuli)
September 16 - 4th Baja Vermentino Terre di Gallura - (Sardinia)
Nov. 11 - 2nd Baja delle Marche (Marche)

Affordable costs and a large prize pool
The Suzuki Challenge allows Hamamatsu's sporting clientele to cultivate their passion for motorsport without an excessive outlay of money. In fact, the entry fee for drivers already registered for one of the previous editions amounts to 600 euros + VAT, which becomes 1,200 + VAT for new entrants. Included in these amounts are a Suzuki sweatshirt/Jacket and a sticker kit for the race car, to which is added for rookies a fireproof suit with Suzuki logos.

Suzuki is putting up a prize pool of as much as 30,000 euros for those who will stand out in the Challenge, with an additional bonus of as much as 10,000 euros for the winner should he or she also become the overall Italian Cross Country Rally Champion.

The final ranking will be drawn up taking into account the five best results obtained, with the possibility for competitors to discard the worst placing.

Automatic translation from the original Italian version
Source ACI Sport

Five times Sertões champion team will have a base in Portugal to extend its customer portfolio and starts to act as authorized dealer for Prodrive Hunter T1+

• Brazilian team expands operations in Europe with base in Portugal
• The Prodrive Hunter T1+ from X Rally Team, which will have 2
• Car was the sensation of the Dakar in the hands of Sebastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin

Two big names, from Brazilian rally and world rally, join forces. The X Rally Team, five-time champion of the Sertões Rally Championship and one of the great references of the national off-road, and Prodrive, a company with extensive experience in off-road and also in motorsports in general, with a great history of achievements in several categories, have signed a partnership for the operation of Prodrive Hunter T1+ for customers in Europe and South America.

"X Rally Team is now authorized by Prodrive to operate the cars, in a cooperative effort between the two organizations that involves training and an exchange between their professionals," said Beco Andreotti, CEO of X Rally Team.

This way, the Brazilian team will expand its operations beyond the Atlantic, and will also operate in Europe. The organization, known for its excellence in the world of off-road competitions, is installing a new base in the city of Évora, in the central region of Portugal, 140 kilometers east of the capital Lisbon.

The expansion of activities, according to the team's CEO, Beco Andreotti, is to extend its client base and facilitate the operation for the team itself in races in the region. In Brazil, X Rally Team operates in the national calendar providing maintenance, vehicles, logistics, and support for about ten clients. With the base in Portugal, the goal is to expand the number of clients and also provide the current ones the experience of competing in rallies in Europe.

Expanding its boundaries to provide services and compete in international rallies, the team, which will compete in the 2023 season using two Prodrive Hunter T1+, the same vehicle used by nine-time world rally champion Sebástien Loeb to win half the specials in this year's Dakar rally - and six in a row, a record - has adopted a business model to facilitate its performance in European races by taking its clients from Brazil and also by winning new ones on the other side of the Atlantic.

X Rally Team's operation in Portugal will be carried out exclusively in the maintenance of Prodrive Hunter T1+ cars for its own drivers and also customers. The first two cars acquired by the team will be used by brothers Cristian and Marcos Baumgart in the Sertões and other competitions.

The car is built by Prodrive, which has in its portfolio work as official Subaru team in the World Rally Championship and Jaguar in the former World Endurance Championship. The company's founder and CEO, David Richards, was also head of the BAR Formula One team in the first half of the 2000s.

"It is a pleasure for us to join forces between X Rally Team and Prodrive. It is very gratifying to be able to show the power of the Prodrive Hunter in Europe and South America. I hope that all the development in the car that won more than half of the Dakar stages this year, and the experience of X Rally will turn this partnership into many victories," celebrated Gus Beteli, Prodrive's team boss.

"We are very excited about the opening of our base in Portugal and the partnership with Prodrive. We hope to leverage our experience and knowledge, along with Prodrive's know-how, to provide our customers with a competitive advantage and help them achieve their competition goals," Andreotti concluded.

The X Rally Team is sponsored by Vedacit, Motul, BF Goodrich and Rodobens.

Automatic translation from the original Portuguese version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source X-Rally official Press Release
Photos BRX / Prodrive