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The Baumgart brothers compete with a new car: the Prodrive Hunter T1+
The 31st edition of the Sertões marks the 25th participation of the X Rally in the race
Team has 5 titles: four with Cristian and Beco and one with Marcos and Kleber.
After the biggest Sertões of all in 2022, with more than seven thousand kilometers in 15 days of competition, the largest rally in the Americas returns to its traditional eight-stage format and with a prologue in its 31st edition. The race begins this Friday (11) and ends on the next day 19 crossing the states of Pernambuco, Bahia and Ceará in 3,8 thousand kilometers and a little more than 2,000 kilometers of timed stretches.
The team X Rally Team, owner of five titles in the main rally of the country, goes to their 25th Sertões and expects a technically challenging route and a test of extreme competitiveness by the quality of the grid between the cars.
Brothers Cristian and Marcos Baumgart bring a new car, the Prodrive Hunter T1+ to replace last year's Toyota Hilux IMA T1 FIA. After their debut in Mexico, on the World Cup stage, the brothers made the double at the Jalapão Rally in late June, when Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea won the race ahead of Cristian Baumhart and Beco Andreotti.
"Sertões returns to its ‘normal’ size after an extremely long journey last year. But that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. We are forecasting a technically difficult route, which will put the cars and the doubles to the test virtually every day," said Beco Andreotti, navigator and CEO of X Rally.
In addition to the route, competitiveness should be the mark of this edition, according to the browser Kleber Cincea. "Only in our team we have 11 cars, five of them being T1+, the fastest in the rally. Other teams will also compete in the category and are ready. I am therefore sure that the dispute will be very tight. A full plate for the rally fan, because nobody has an advantage and the tension will only pass at the end of the race," Kleber said.
Cristian Baumgart and Beco Andreotti, and Marcos Baumhart and Kleber Cincea form two of the longest-lived duos in the history of the World Rally. With four titles of the Sertões, Cristian and Beco are the only duo with four Sertões victories (2016, 2017, 2018 e 2021). The duo has competed together for 22 years. Marcos and Kleber have won the Sertões of 2020, are four-time champions of the Jalapão Rally and three-time Brazilian rally champions, and have been in the same cockpit for 17 years.
"The expectation is high. We have two new cars in the team, which we follow with our great partners of all time, who help us achieve higher performance. There is no ease in the Sertões. Whether with 15 days, as was last year, or with eight stages, as will be this year, it is always a very difficult rally and that challenges drivers, navigators, and machines to the extreme. We have worked hard this past year, so our goal is the victory for the team," said four-time champion Cristian Baumgart.
With 11 cars in the team, the X Rally brings a real squad of 120 people among mechanics, engineers, drivers, cooks, and other professionals: "We are a team of dedicated people, united around a goal, and that comes from a long-standing enthronement. It will be our 25th Sertões, always surrounded by great expectations. We already had the taste of running with our new car, we made all the adjustments, and for the whole team, we will always work with a focus on winning. Of course Sertões is unique, has several traps, but with the union of all, we seek to overcome the obstacles of the journey", summarizes Marcos Baumgart.
In addition to the duo composed of Cristian Baumgart/Beco Andreotti and Marcos Baumgarti/Kleber Cincea, the X Rally ranks nine more cars. For the T1+ class, Sylvio de Barros/Ramon Sacilotti, Mauro Guedes/Edu Bampi and Fefo Rosset/Marcelo Haseyama compete on board the Toyota Hilux Overdrive T1+. The cars in the category have a higher damper course, larger tires (37 in, versus 32 of the T1) and some models are equipped with V6 turbocharged engines.
For the FIA T1 class, the Paulista team will have the duo formed by Dan Nacif/Fred Budtikevitz and Gunter Hinkelmann/Fabrício Bianchini; in the T1 (formerly T1 Brazil) run Pedro Prado/Josi Koerich, José Silmar/Alyson Antunes, Rodrigo Aché/Felipe Eckel and Luís Carlos Naciff/Erick Silveira. In both classes, the duo align the X Rally Ranger built by the team.
The X Rally Team is sponsored by Vedacit, Motul, BF Goodrich and Rodobens.
Automatic translation from the original Brazilian-Portuguese version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source: P1 Media Relations/ X-Rally Team
The team Varela Can-Am Monster Energy is in Petrolina, in the state of Pernambuco, 714 km from the capital Recife, for the competition of the 31st BRB Sertões Rally. The team, which last year won the event with driver Rodrigo Varela and navigator Matheus Mazzei, tries to repeat the feat. To this end, he enrolled four UTVs, all manned by experienced and competitive doubles.
In addition to Rodrigo and Mazzei, the team has the two-time winner of the Sertões (2000 and 2015) in cars, Reinaldo Varela with the navigator Aristóteles Fiuza; the winner of the category UTVs in 2017, Bruno Varela, alongside Gustavo Bortolanza; and Gabriel Varella with his new navigator, Ênio Bozzano.
The current champion of the Sertões, Rodrigo Varela, paid attention to the fact that, despite the race being shorter this year, navigation remains the main issue. "Navigation will be quite difficult. At least this is the orientation we have, since the script is only revealed every day of the test", explained the current champion among the UTVs. "And we will have to be very careful on the slopes during the whole race, because there will be a lot of stones, of all sizes, even large rocks," he warned.
World triple champion Reinaldo Varela predicts that one of the team’s greatest achievements will be the technical side, after improvements made in the Can-Am Maverick X3 models. "After a great preparation, we finally arrived at Sertões and we feel that our UTV is holding for the challenges that we will face, mainly because of the developments that we saw in the last events that we participated in", he assessed. "But, of course, it is always a very complicated test. Being calm so as not to damage the equipment will be essential", he pondered.
Enthusiasm – Winner in 2017, Bruno Varela sees the team’s enthusiasm in the main challenge of the Brazilian rally as "motivation to accelerate more". "It is always cool to get to the Sertões, I helped to assemble our structure, and now really beat that anxiety," he confessed. "We have a very strong team, and our expectation is to fight for good results. We arrived as the current team champion, but it will be difficult, starting right from the first special that has 370 km. It's going to be well pulled. Then we have the third and fourth, which together form the marathon. But every step deserves attention. Defeating the Sertões requires a lot of commitment."
Gabriel Varela bets on his perseverance to leave Sertões with a good result. "It is always important that we have everything at 100% for this race, which is the most anticipated and most desirable of the year. But attention to detail and focus on keeping a steady pace are what can make a difference in Sertões. As curious as it may seem to those who do not compete in high-performance rallies, our goal is to try not to hit anything, walking as fast as possible. That, I would say, is our homework here for our team", said Gabriel Varela.
The 2023 Sertons Rally is scheduled to begin this Friday, August 11th, with the prologue and Super Prime. The event will have eight stages, no day off, and go through three states. This year's marathon stage, in which competitors cannot use mechanical support and need to do the repairs in their own vehicles, will be going back and forth between Petrolina and Xique-Xique, in Bahia.
Automatic translation from the original Brazillian-Portuguese version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source: Best PR / Team Varela Can-Am Monster Energy
The main highlight of the last Dakar attempt was the triple championship of the Sertons Rally alongside the navigator Kaíque Bentivoglio
The success in international races and the incredible podium at the Dakar Rally immediately at the debut put Brazilian Lucas Moraes on the radar of Toyota Gazoo Racing, one of the most celebrated sports arms of the automotive industry. Confirmed as an official driver by the Japanese factory a month ago, Moraes this week begins the campaign for the first big goal of the partnership: to fight for victory in the 31st edition of the BRB Sertons Rally, alongside the navigator Kaique Bentivoglio. The duo is the current champion of the race.
The Sertões will be played between August 11 and 19, with a total of 3.793km, being 2.027km timed and valid for the win. The race will pass through three states of the Northeast: Pernambuco, Bahia and Ceará, going from Petrolina (PE), in the Nordestino Semiárido, to Praia do Preá, in the city of Cruz, coastal Ceará.
Also included in the Red Bull program, another coveted international platform for supporting leading drivers in world sport, Moraes is the only Brazilian to use the colors of two highly prestigious programs in motorsport. He and Bentivoglio also have the support of the companies SpeedMax (PneuStore), Zapälla, Strava, and Sparco, which, alongside Red Bull and Toyota, have their colors and logos in the carrier of the Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ operated in Brazil by the team MEM Motorsports.
"The time has come. Sertões is our great challenge here in Brazil. The car arrived in the country last week. Immediately we did the shakedown (system verification training) on a farm in the interior of São Paulo and he followed with the team to Petrolina, where it will be the departure of the Sertões next Friday. Now, it's worth it. We are ready for the challenge," commented Lucas Moraes.
"We have several competitors of very high level in this year’s edition, some with Dakar cars. In the competition as a whole, we have several pilot-navigator-car sets with potential for victory in a race that will take almost four thousand kilometers. We hope to be among them, fighting for good results every day of the Sertões. I am not tired of repeating to everyone on the team: it will be a huge challenge for all of us. But we are ready," Moraes concluded.
The 31st edition of the BRB Sertões Rally begins with the 13-kilometer prologue in Petrolina, which will define the starting order on Saturday, the second of the nine days of competition. The first is Friday, with the times of the prologue itself valid for the dispute.
Automatic translation from the original Brazilian-Portuguese version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source: Red Bull Toyota Gazoo Racing Team
Photo: Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Content Pool
The category with the most participants of this 31st edition of Sertões BRB is the UTVs. Certainly, the race has at least a dozen candidates for the title. What became tradition in the largest rally in the Americas is repeated in the 2023 edition, from 11 to 19 this month, with a start in Petrolina (PE) and arrival in Preá (CE). Among the a hundred doubles starting the challenge, it is impossible to make predictions. Not only by quantity, but, above all, by quality. Especially when the differences usually stay in the house for a few seconds.
In the list of registered, are the most recent champions: Rodrigo Varela / Matheus Mazzei, who won the achievement of winning the largest rally in the world, in the edition of the 30 years held in 2022. The two champions, Deninho Casarini/Ivo Meyer (2020 and 2021); Deni Nascimento and Idali Bosse (2019), as well as Roldan himself (2015) complete this team.
Also among the registered no less than four Dakar champions (the drivers Reinaldo Varela and Leandro Torres and the sailors Gustavo Gugelmin and Lourival Roldan); two winners of stages in the race – Rodrigo Luppi and Cristiano Batista. The latter arrives with the status of champion of the FIA World Cup of Rally Low in the class T4 and current leader of the competition. And his son Otávio Leite fights for the title of the T3 category.
And to conclude this already selected list of beasts, no less than the biggest winner in three decades of trial, owner of seven titles in motorcycles: Jean Azevedo. He is back on four wheels, now on board a UTV, and in double with Idali Bosse. The pilot of São José dos Campos/SP did not need much time to feel at home in the new environment and show that he is a name to be among the first. In addition, the Portuguese Gualter Barros and Nuno Corvo guarantee the international touch to the contest, which will extend over 3,800 kilometers, 2,030 of them timed, divided into a prologue and eight stages.
Rodrigo Varela: "Sertões is so great for us that I noticed a change in the kind of expectation I am experiencing. As the current champion, the look you have completely changes. People think that when you get there, things get quieter and more relaxed, but that's not true. The desire to accelerate is great, and, thanks to the good preparation work of our team, I know that we have a chance to get another good result."
Jean Azevedo: "This is my first time at Sertões de UTV, and I am quite excited, We managed to evolve a lot in the first races of the year and develop the equipment. I'm more entangled with Idali and ready to face a new challenge. I am looking for the victory in the new category, but there are a lot of people with experience, many years in the mode. We are very prepared, as the goal is always to fight for victory".
Automatic translation from the original Brazilian-Portuguese version available on Sertões Rally official site
Source: Rali dos Sertões
Photo: Rali dos Sertoes (social media)
Three former winners registered in the bikes for the BRB Sertões would already be enough to suggest an exciting fight in the 2023 edition of the largest rally of the Americas, from 11 to 19 this month, connecting Petrolina (PE) to Preá, in Cruz (CE), over a prologue and eight stages in a total of 3,800 km. But the two-wheel race gained this year an element of more interest, with the presence of one of the main revelations of the cross-country rallies. And four countries represented.
Ricardo Martins (Yamaha), winner in 2020; the French Adrien Metge (Yamaaha), best in 2021, and Bissinho Zavatti (Honda), current champion, leave with the same challenge of reaching a second victory in the Sertões. The rivalry between the two brands, by the way, has been the tone in the last editions. Something capable of providing a very rare moment last year – Metge and Bissinho completed the fourth stage, from Campo Grande to Costa Rica (MS) matched up in the tenth second after 382 kilometers timed.
Honda still has the Argentine Martín Duplessis, second in 2022; and Gabriel Soares, the Tomate, fourth in his first year in the mode, after a career in motocross and Enduro FIM. On the Yamaha side, Gabriel Bruning is another name to fight for the top positions.
The novelty in the BRB Sertões responds by the name of Mason Klein. The 22-year-old Californian is the current world champion in the Rally 2 category. He was ninth in his first Dakar (2022) and, this year, won a stage and led the classification even running a private KTM, before being forced to quit due to contusions. He accepted the invitation of also driver and businessman Dimas Mattos (DM Workshop / Brazil Moto Tour) to face the new challenge in his career.
Also highlight for another participation of Moara Sacilotti, who starts in Petrolina as the current champion in the Moto Over, willing to repeat the achievement.
In quadriciclos, Marcelo Medeiros has a chance to make history. He left in search of his fifth title, which would isolate him as the biggest winner of the Sertões in the modality. Currently, he is matched by four-time champions Carlo Collet and Robert Naji Nahas. In the last Dakar, Maranhense showed to be among the best in the world by winning four stages and leading the race.
Little Zavatti (winner 2022): “I come quite focused again for another year. The expectations are the best possible, I have trained hard and since last year I have drawn a very good line, which led me to the title, and now it is not being different. The preparation was very similar, I adjusted some details. Very looking forward to coming the day to be in Petrolina and start accelerating. Me and the Honda team are 100% ready.”
Adrien Metge (winner 2021): “The expectation is very good. Since the beginning of the year, I've been training and competing well. The team has done a great job and we have won all the Brazilian tests so far. This year's Sertões promises to be very technical, with various terrain. It's definitely going to be a nice Sertons to walk. I'm sure the team will do their best too. My companions are also very well and the climate is great. We're trying to get that title back. Now it's about keeping the focus and accelerating."
Mason Klein: “I am very happy to participate in the Sertões and try new terrain to become a better driver. Thank you for the invitation of Dimas Mattos and his team. I intend to accelerate strongly and I hope to see everyone on the finish line.”
Automatic translation from the original Brazilian-Portuguese version available on Sertões Rally official site
Source: Rali dos Sertões
Photo: Rali dos Sertoes (social media)
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