Fifteen days ago, in Spain, Bruno Santos finished sixth but took the lead in the provisional rankings of the FIM Bajas World Cup with 35 points. Former leader Mohammed Al-Balooshi finished 14th overall and now has 31 points.
The Portuguese rider will, therefore, sport the number one at the Hungarian Baja, which takes place from August 8th-10th in Várpalota, close to the famous Lake Balaton.
Seventeen motorcycles and five quads will pass administrative and technical checks on Thursday in order to validate their conformity to exacting FIM standards. At 20.00hrs, they will parade on the podium in front of the medieval Thury Castle for the official start of the Hungarian Baja.
As has been the case for the past 20 years, the Baja takes place on the largest military shooting range in Central and Eastern Europe.
On Friday, riders will tackle an 8.7km Prologue in order to assign the starting order for the opening special of 64km (SS1A), followed by SS1B of 58km for a morning’s total of 122km. Competitors will repeat the same loop in the afternoon for a total day’s action of 244km.
On Saturday (August 10th), they will pass through the 58km of SS3A followed by the 101km of SS3B. In total, over the two days, they will have raced over 403km of special stages in a compact route of 535.57km.
Bruno Santos (Husqvarna) will be keen to maintain his lead in the FIM Bajas World Cup, while Mohammed Al-Balooshi (KTM) will try to regain the advantage, although the terrain is not really the Dubai racer’s cup of tea.
Both riders will also have to watch out for David Megre (Kawasaki), Abdullah Al-Mogheera (KTM), Veteran Paulo Bianchi Prata (Honda) and Junior rider Filip Grot (KTM).
Two women will also be present: Joanna Modrzewska (Husqvarna) and Aishwarya Pissay (KTM) are both tied for second in the Women’s title race on 20 points.
In the quad category, the fight for the lead of the FIM Bajas World Cup will be between Abdulaziz Al-Shayban (Yamaha) - who is tied for the lead with Haitham Al-Tuwaijri (Yamaha) - and Hani Al-Noumesi (Yamaha), with the latter only one point behind his fellow Saudis. Abdulaziz Al-Atawi and Marcin Wilkolek are also challenging for quad honours on their Yamahas.
For further information on Hungarian Baja
SPORTITY code HGB24_FIM
Text: FIM
Photo: Rally-Raid Network / Imagens Desportivas
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