More than 60 vehicles took part in the Riverside Baja in Paphos, with seconds and minutes deciding the winner after two days and 6 stages.
Even the first day was not without unexpected twists and turns, with two side-by-sides going head-to-head on the prologue and a car on fire on the second stage - fortunately, no injuries were reported and the fire was extinguished in time.
On Saturday, the M1 Fleet Hungarian Off-Road Rally Championship and the Polish Championship continued with the third stage, with battles for the top places going all the way to the finish line.
In the Ultimate category, Miroslav Zapletal was once again unstoppable, with the Czech pilot and his navigator Marek Sykora pulling away to win by 1 minute ahead of Michal Maluszynski and Julita Maluszynska, who were leading the Mini.
"We are happy to win again, we had a perfect race, we enjoyed the whole track. The challenge was the very bumpy, bumpy, long sections, but everything went as planned." - said navigator Marek Sykora.
The third place on the podium went to a Hungarian pair, Pál Lónyai and György Tóth in the T1 Macan, who set the third fastest time, ahead of several T1+ cars.
"We worked hard for the result, we had to fight hard to keep up the pace. They were coming at us from behind but we didn't let the position slip away. My navigator Szuper Gyuri didn't make any mistakes and the car behaved well. There were several parts of the track that favoured the side-by-side cars, and we tried to get through them at as high a speed as possible without smashing the car. It wasn't easy to find the middle ground, but I think we managed it." - said the driver.
In SSV, the battle went down to the wire, with Garilla Racing's Zoltán Garamvölgyi and Antal Takács proving the fastest, but they were given a one-minute time penalty for speeding before the 6th rapid, putting their main challenger Marek Kubiczek half a minute ahead. In the end, only 3 seconds decided the first place, which was taken by the Polish driver. The Hungarian duo were not far off the podium, but celebrated on the second step of the podium.
"We had the pace, maybe too much, as we were penalised for speeding. In the last special we managed to set the third best time overall, but there is nothing more difficult than when you want to go fast because you know you are 30 seconds ahead of your rival, but you have to take care of the car because you have to get to the finish. The CanAm has been so perfected by the guys during the service that we could be going to the next race right now." - said Zoltán Garamvölgyi.
Rally champion Michal Kosciuszko was also in the lead for a long time, taking a stage win. The driver didn't want to take any risks, as it was only his second race with the Polaris, the car and the driver were heavily affected by the many pit stops, and due to a technical problem he couldn't start on stage 5.
Overall, Mirosalv Zapletal was the winner in the drivers' competition, with Marek Kubiczek second and Zoltán Garamvölgyi third, leaving the T1+ car followed by two side-by-sides.
Saturday's race did not go smoothly, with two Polish pairs crashing on the third stage. The side-by-side duo of Grzegorz Gasiorowski and Kasia Szalega had a head-on collision with the Hummer in front of them. They braked at the speed limit zone, but the Polar pair behind them were too close and were unable to react in time, so they collided at racing speed (around 120 km/h) and overturned into the ditch. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured and Kasia Szalega was taken by ambulance to hospital, where she was examined and found to have escaped with a minor concussion. Due to the accident, SS3 was interrupted and the fourth rapid was cancelled, leaving the riders to fight for positions in two more stages.
In the quads, Ireneusz Ostafin topped the podium with a 10-minute lead, while László Balog finished second and completed the race with a hard-fought but balanced performance.
"I am completely satisfied. To achieve this result I had to mentally and physically adjust myself to complete the race with as few mistakes as possible." - reported László Balog
The winner of the motorbike category was Péter Kárpáti, who again finished in the lead after Bugac, with a deep trail carved out by the cars and a road book mistake making his race difficult. "I missed the Pápoc terrain, it was good to be back again. After the Hungarian Baja, this is probably the most testing terrain for a vehicle, so there was plenty to do in the service time." - said the driver.
The overall first place went to Ireneusz Ostafin, second to László Balogh and third to Péter Kárpáti.
The perfect weather for racing also attracted a large number of motorsport fans to Pápoc, with one of the most popular spectator spots being the wreck derby track, where you could watch the cars jump into the mine, then drive through and finally fly out.
The next round of the Hungarian Hillclimb Championship is just around the corner, as the next round will take place in Baja Satu Mare in Nagykároly in just over 1 month's time, from 13-15 June!
Automatic translation from the Hungarian Version -
Source: https://www.terep-rallye.hu
Szerző: Erős Réka
Photo: From LP Racing official FB Page
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