Six-time event winner Al-Attiyah teams up with Belgian navigator Fabian Lurquin for the first time to continue the development work on his Dacia Sandrider before the next round of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC). Five-time event winner Roma and navigator Alex Haro are continuing work on the M-Sport Ford team’s Raptor alongside Belgian support driver Jourdan Serderidis.
But the spotlight in the FIA World Baja Cup centres around the battle for the overall Drivers’ Championship with the class points-scoring structure giving drivers and navigators in all the categories an equal chance of achieving success.
Czech driver Miroslav Zapletal currently the leads the Drivers’ Championship by 15 points and also tops the Ultimate and Master classes in his Ford F-150 Evo. His closest challenger is Ultimate rival Juan Cruz Yacopini at the wheel of an Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux.
The Argentine won two rounds this season in Jordan and Italy and that has given his navigator Daniel Oliveras a 25-point lead over Andrei Rudnitskiy in the Navigators’ Championship. Francisco Barreto of Portugal is also chasing FIA World Baja Cup points in a Toyota Hilux.
Emirati Khalid Al-Jafla currently leads the Challenger category in his Taurus T3 Max and holds third place in the overall Drivers’ Championship and second in the Master category. He has already scored from four events this season and has not registered for points in Spain.
UAE-based Sergei Remennik is his closest Challenger rival and has made the trip to Spain to compete in a Taurus T3 Max with navigator Aleksei Ignatov. Sergei claimed maximum points in Saudi Arabia and Jordan but has only competed in two rounds of the series so far.
The battle for honours in the SSV class is also hotting up as the season nears its mid-point, although Great Britain’s Paul Severn (Polaris) – the leader of the SSV category by 23 points – has not made the trip to Teruel.
That may enable six of his closest rivals to close the gap on the Briton or move ahead in the title race. Dutchman Mitchel Van Den Brink (Can-Am) is his closest challenger after a strong performance in Italy and Italian Amerigo Ventura (Yamaha) is only two points further behind.
Oman’s Hamed Al-Wahaibi scored maximum points in Italy earlier this month and that has lifted the Can-Am driver to fourth in the championship. Former WRC co-driver Ilka Minor returns to partner the veteran after missing the last round in Pordenone.
Other registered SSV rivals include Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Al-Haydan, Argentina’s Diego Martinez and Eugenio Amos in a trio of Can-Am Maverick Rs. Regular FIA Baja champion Fernando Alvarez returns to action after a back surgery-induced lay-off but is not registered for FIA points on this occasion.
The impressive list of SSV drivers not registered for FIA points also includes the likes of Portugal’s João Dias, Alexandre Pinto and João Monteiro, Frenchman Michael Metge and the talented Norwegian girl Hedda Hosås.
Saudi Arabia’s Majed Al-Thunayyan (Nissan) again opts to miss a European round and the Stock category leader is sure to see his 37-point advantage trimmed by Portugal’s Fernando Barreiros, who is the sole entrant registered for the FIA World Baja Cup in his Isuzu D-Max.
The list of non-registered drivers competing in the Ultimate class extends way beyond Al-Attiyah and Roma. Leading South African driver Saood Variawa and Portugal’s João Ferreira represent Toyota Gazoo Racing, the latter making his debut after switching from the X-Raid Team.
Veteran WRC driver and former Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge winner Martin Prokop wheels out his Ford Raptor, X-Raid runs a pair of diesel-engined Mini JCW Rally machines for Lionel Baud and Maria Gameiro and the Polish Energylandia Rally Team trio of Eryk, Marek and Michal Goczal return to action in three Toyota Hilux IMT Evos. Overdrive Racing has also entered a Hilux for Italian Baja runner-up Martin Kaczmarski.
Wajzer and Górecki look to defend FIA European Baja Cup leads
The format of this year’s nine-round FIA European Baja Cup has enabled the Polish crew of Barthomiej Wajzer and Ernest Górecki to forge into a 64-point lead over their nearest rivals in the Drivers’ and Navigators’ Championships. The Toyota Land Cruiser KDJ 155 crew also lead the Stock category and Wajzer is the front-runner in the Master class.
Their nearest rivals are currently the Challenger category-leading Spanish duo of Miguel Angel Valero and Carlos Ruiz in a VN Competición T34. Valero is also second in the Master driver class and leads Challenger by 35 points from Portugal’s Tiago Reis. Hungarian Lőrinc Mészáros will also be chasing Challenger points in Spain.
Reis holds fifth in the Drivers’ Championship in his Taurus T3 Max behind Wajzer, Valero, SSV front-runner Yağiz Birinci and Ultimate class leader Magdalena Zając. Birinci has not made the trip to Spain but retains the lead in the Junior class over Afonso Oliveira. Only Polaris RXR Pro R Sport drivers Oliveira and Sean Haran are registered for SSV points in the FIA European Baja Cup in Spain.
Zając will be looking to extend her Ultimate class advantage in the absence of closest rival Wlodzimierz Grajek, although the Lithuanian Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics crew of Benediktas Vanagas and Aisvydas Paliukenas scored maximum points for finishing third overall in Italy and are competing in Spain. Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov will be hoping to bounce back strongly after finishing down in 23rd place in Italy in their X-Raid Mini JCW 3.0i.
The event is based out of the town of Teruel in the Aragón region of eastern Spain. Competitors will tackle 545.47km competitive kilometres in a revised 797.69km route laid on by Motor Club Baja – Octagon.
A Prologue of 6.78km will determine starting orders on Friday (July 25th) afternoon before competitors tackle two stages of 172.71km and 193.37km through the punishing heat of a Spanish summer’s day on Saturday (July 26th).
Action concludes on Sunday (July 26th) with a single stage of 172.71km before the podium and prize giving ceremony in Teruel in the evening.
Source: FIA
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