The Portuguese duo of João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro earned a confidence-boosting victory in Portugal’s Baja TT Sharish Gin Reguengos de Monsaraz-Mourão, which hosted the eighth round of the FIA European Baja Cup out of the town of Reguengos de Monsaraz.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing crew finished 1min 49.9sec ahead of Guillaume de Mévius and a returning Mathieu Baumel, who were using the event as a shakedown test for the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship and the 2026 Dakar Rally in their X-Raid Mini JCW 3.0i. A flat tyre cost De Mévius valuable time and a potential win on the final stage.
Ferreira also won the event last year. He said: “It was a tough one. The last stage was like the morning, full attack. I didn’t find the right pace in the beginning. Then, I found the pace and we pushed like crazy. We were already in the front and he (Guillaume) had a puncture, so we won with a good margin. I am happy. This was my first Portuguese race with Toyota in South Africa. The service between the stages was always very tight, so big congratulations to the team.”
De Mévius added: “It was a good weekend for us to be honest. We are a little bit disappointed because we didn’t get the win. We got a puncture on the last 10km. It’s like that, we were trying to push. It was a good fight with João. Most importantly, it was a good return with me and Mathieu, so I’m really happy about that. We finished the stage with the puncture and, at the end of the stage, we did the change with Mathieu, so we started training and pushing the training.”
Toyota entered a pair of Hiluxes for their front-running W2RC drivers Henk Lategan and Seth Quintero and their navigators Brett Cummings and Andrew Short for shakedown testing because of the event’s close proximity to the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal at the end of the month. Quintero came home in third place but Lategan clouted a rock on the third stage and was sidelined with damage to his car after leading for a time on day one.
The Portuguese pairing of Gonçalo Guerreiro and Joel Lutas dominated the SSV category in their Polaris RXR Pro R and finished fourth overall. They were not registered for the FIA European Baja Cup and maximum points in the SSV section went to the British duo of Sean Haran and Marin Hales.
The Polaris duo finished 11th overall and that enabled them to close the gap on Afonso Oliveira and Fábio Belo in the title race. The Portuguese finished down in 21st overall and second of the registered SSV crews’ home but remain strong favourites to lift the title next month. Oliveira confirmed victory in the FIA European Baja Cup’s Junior Driver category.
Oliveira said: “The race didn’t go as we expected. We had some accidents on day one. But I achieved one of the objectives and that was to become the European Junior champion. That’s already done. Now we go to Portalegre to fight for the title of European champion in T4 (SSV).”
Tiago Reis and Paulo Fiúza guided their Taurus T3 Max to fifth place and maximum points in the Challenger category. Their Spanish championship rivals, Miguel Angel Valero and Carlos Ruiz, managed to finish down in 18th position and picked up valuable championship points. They head to the final round as firm favourites to win the title. The Hungarian duo of Lőrinc Mészáros and Albert Horn missed this event but remain their closest challengers.
Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov guided the second of the X-Raid Mini JCW Rally 3.0is to seventh place and picked up points for finishing second in the Ultimate category behind Ferreira and Palmeiro.
Poland’s Wlodimierz Grajek and Michal Goleniewski were third in the Ultimate class in their Toyota Hilux and 13th overall. Grajek heads to the final round in Portugal with a slender lead over Benediktas Vanegas and Magdalena Zając in the Ultimate Drivers’ Championship and the duo also remain on course to finish runners-up in the overall FIA European Baja Cup behind the triumphant Stock category-winning pairing of Bartlomiej Wajzer and Ernest Górecki.
Gracek said: “We are happy that we finished, especially after passing so many cars that were damaged and could not continue. The result could have been better if we had taken the right place on the Prologue. We drove a lot in the dust. Fortunately, we didn’t hit anything.”
Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk returned from back injuries sustained in an accident at the Jordan Baja in May. They were not registered for the FIA European Baja Cup but used the event to reacclimatise to active competition. A driveshaft failure on the penultimate stage cost the Toyota crew a potential top six finish, but Al-Rajhi was pleased with how his back held up physically as he prepares to defend his Dakar Rally title in January 2026.
Thirty-six of the original 38 entries started the penultimate round of the FIA European Baja Cup, but only seven were chasing points in the championship. The remainder were either testing prior to the forthcoming round of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) in Portugal or competing for points in the Portuguese Off-Road series. There were 16 starters in the Ultimate section, nine in Challenger and 11 in SSV.
Lategan topped the times on the opening Prologue of 5.71km, near Mourão, to beat De Mévius by 1.2 seconds on his first ever Baja in Europe. As far as the registered FIA European Baja Cup contenders were concerned, Ferreira led the way from Haran, Grajek, Krotov, Oliveira, Reis and Valero.
Competitors then tackled two passes through a 116.12km stage on Saturday. Lategan and De Mévius shared a fastest time apiece on the two stages and the South African took a 46.1-second advantage over the Belgian into the night halt. Quintero was third and fourth-placed Ferreira was the leading FIA registered driver in his Toyota.
Ferreira said: “We opened the road and made a decent job. The road was very slippery with some new parts for me. I have been doing this race since 2019 and this was the first time we see some narrow parts between trees. We were cautious not to damage the car.”
Tiago Reis made a strong start on day one and held eighth overall and was the leading Challenger entry registered for the FIA European Baja Cup, two places in front of Denis Krotov in the second of the Ultimate cars and five positions ahead of Sean Haran, who topped the registered drivers in the SSV category. Local driver Gonçalo Guerreiro was the runaway leader of the SSV section.
The final day offered competitors two passes through a shorter stage of 89.70km. Ferreira topped the times on the opener and closed to within 12.9 seconds of De Mévius at the head of the standings, despite breaking his windscreen on a low-lying branch. Quintero held third and runaway SSV leader Guerreiro was fourth. De Mévius actually clouted the same tree as his Portuguese rival.
Al-Rajhi was sidelined after a driveshaft breakage and Lategan clouted a rock on the side of the stage and was ruled out with car damage.
Ferreira managed to win the last stage to secure victory over De Mévius by 1min 49.9sec and a maximum haul of FIA European Baja Cup points after the Belgian finished the stage with a flat tyre.
The 2025 FIA European Baja Cup reaches its conclusion with Baja Portalegre in Portugal on October 23rd-25th.
Baja TT Sharish Reguengos – final result:
1. João Ferreira (POR)/Filipe Palmeiro (POR) TGR Toyota Hilux 3hr 49min 28.6sec+
2. Guillaume de Mévius (BEL)/Mathieu Baumel (FRA) Mini JCW Rally 3.0i 3hr 51min 18.5sec
3. Seth Quintero (USA)/Andrew Short (USA) Toyota Hilux 3hr 55min 56.1sec
4. Gonçalo Guerreiro (POR)/Joel Lutas (POR) Polaris RXR Pro R 4hr 03min 18.6sec
5. Tiago Reis (POR)/Paulo Fiúza (POR) Taurus T3 Max 4hr 06min 23.1sec+
6. Daniel Silva (POR)/Gonçalo Magalhães (POR) Taurus T3 Max 4hr 06min 48.1sec
7. Denis Krotov (KGZ)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (KGZ) Mini JCW Rally 3.0i 4hr 09min 04.2sec+
8. Pim Klaassen (NED)/Mark Laan (NED) Taurus T3 4hr 15min 23.6sec
9. Rúben Rodrigues (POR)/Rui Paulo (POR) Can-Am Maverick R 4hr 16min 11.4sec
10. Tiago Guerreiro (POR)/Carlos Paulino (POR) Polaris RXR Pro R 4hr 16min 24.4sec
Source: FIA
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