Disclaimer:
As a service to the sport we all love and follow, Rally-Raid Network posts numerous media releases from a wide variety of sources on our website. Due to the large number, and some times short time available, it is nearly impossible to review each public release. These articles are written by reporters or press officers who work for various organizers, teams, drivers, riders, and other parties, and they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Rally-Raid Network.
Riverside Baja 2024: The second Hungarian race of the season is coming
The off-road rally returns to Pápoc again from May 9-11, this year the Riverside Baja serves not only as a round of the M1 Flotta Hungarian Off-Road Rally Championship and CEZ, but also as a round of the Polish Championship.
The race, which will be held for the 9th time, will run according to an almost unchanged route and schedule compared to last year, minor modifications are expected on the selective section of 330.88 km only due to the increase in the number of people.
"It is a great honor and at the same time a responsibility that this year, in addition to the CEZ and Hungarian championships, the Polish off-road rallyists also included the event in their annual evaluation. So I thought, for the first time in my 25-year career, that we would not try new ideas and plans, but rather dust off the already well-proven system of last year and implement the race with only minor refinements, paying even more attention to the safety of the public." - said the main organizer of the competition, Zoltán Garamvölgyi.
Sudden potholes, waves and water-filled trails can cause unexpected turns on the Riverside Baja course. For a few kilometers, sometimes 40-50 cm deep "lakes" have to be crossed with the vehicles, the 2-3 m3 of water coming into the lap from the first puddle can surprise mainly open car, motorcycle and quad racers. "The course is characterized by amazing changes in rhythm and surface, which makes the competition particularly difficult, but there are always parts that you look forward to solving in the most beautiful or fastest way. The audience is also always very grateful and they tend to conjure up a particularly good atmosphere at the viewing points. You also have to pay close attention to the wild animals in this area, as many rabbits, pheasants, roe deer, deer, and wild boar live here, and I think there may be others in the deeper puddles..." - noted Zoli Garamvölgyi
On Friday, May 10, at a quarter past three in the afternoon, the prologue opens the off-road rally competition, which is followed by two speed legs, and on Saturday, 4 stages await the field. In addition to Pápoc, the route also touches Szergény, Vöncök and the more than 1,000-year-old Kemenesmagasi roads, from which the competitors also receive special prizes. In the center of Pápoc, the community center provides a special environment for the Parc Ferme and the award ceremony, and the area around the Seniors' Club provides a perfect service park for the teams and a location for the competition office. Competitors can enter in motorcycle, quad, Ultimate, Stock, Challenger, SSV, T4Nat, TH, Truck, UP and RAID categories until April 26 at six o'clock in the evening.
Chief organizer and competitor Zoltán Garamvölgyi singled out the small hosting villages as a special feature of the event, which have been providing the perfect location for the Riverside Baja for many years and who welcome the off-road rally with exemplary love: "This is a small regional collaboration, for which we receive small and large help from everywhere, since this is the 9th year we have visited the roads in the area, which Ákos Soós usually restores after the race - for that we owe him a special thank you! In addition, I love the cooperation of the people of Pápoc, how the already well-organized small settlement is made even smaller every year for the competition and they also prepare mouth-watering snacks for the teams of the service park."
At the race, you can only expect a good atmosphere and lots of adventures, which the competitors and spectators can experience together. There are some easily accessible and now iconic viewing points that are very spectacular and popular, and they open to the public on the Thursday of race week. There, everyone tends to color their driving style a little to the amazement of the spectators, even at the expense of time. "We pay special attention to these points so that everyone is safe and can support in a cultured way, since they are part of every selective stage in one direction or another. Since we will have a larger field than usual, there is no reason for the audience to move, because for two days there will be almost continuous activity at the announced viewing points." added Zoli Garamvölgyi.
At this off-road rally event, the issue of safety plays a prominent role, and to help with this, the industry media has produced a publication summarizing safety rules . It contains a lot of general information and requests that the directors want everyone to study and accept. Fans are specifically asked to only go to the designated spectator points and help the track security staff by complying with their requests, as well as paying attention to their fellow human beings, so that no one can place themselves in a place where they can put themselves or the competitors in danger!
" Let everyone mentally join the "inner circle" of those who want to maintain the off-road rally and see everyone safe even after the race is over! Help Riverside Baja and Hungarian Autosport, Motorsport!" asks Zoltán Garamvölgyi.
Source: .terep-rallye.hu
Author: Réka Erős
Photos: Péter Pataky
Helder