2022 Baja de Loulé: Micael Simão (GasGas), João Vale (Yamaha) and the duo Roberto Borrego/Nuno Abrantes (Can-Am) win Baja Loulé

Micael Simão in GasGas among the bikes, João Vale on an Yamaha in Quad and the duo Roberto Borrego/Nuno Abrantes in Can-Am in a SSV were the big winners of Baja Loulé, the fifth stage of the 2022 Portuguese Off-Road Championship.

MOTOS: MICAEL SIMÃO CONQUERS IS FIRST VICTORY

The race organized by Clube Automóvel do Algarve saw the champion António Maio, on a Yamaha, to impose himself in the prologue, leaving Gustavo Gaudêncio (Honda) at 6.5s and Martim Ventura (Yamaha) at 11.7s. In the race, António Maio led until about km120 when he was forced to stop with an electrical problem. Micael Simão, who until then rode very close to the champion, took the lead and ended the selective sector with an advantage of 1m12s for Martim Ventura and 2m57s for Gustavo Gaudêncio. On the following day, Micael Simão remarkably defended his first position, having even repeated his victory in the selective sector, which gave the GasGas pilot his first absolute victory in the Portuguese Championship. The 2nd place was occupied by Martim Ventura, the winner among the Juniors, who finished 1m24s from the winner. Gustavo Gaudêncio who was the fastest of the day until the middle of SS2 completed the podium of this Baja Loulé. Excellent 4th position for Fernando Ferreira in a Fantic that won the TT1 Class, ahead of the Algarve’s rider Fábio Guerreiro on a Husqvarna and Miguel Castro on a KTM. Six bikes from different brands were at the top of the classification. Mário Patrão on a KTM in the Veterans and Tomás Dias on a Yamaha in the Promotion were the remaining winners of this Algarve’s journey. The Champion António Maio was fourth in the final stage, which didn’t allow him to go beyond 15th place overall.

QUADS: JOÃO VALE SCORES A NEW VICTORY AMONG THE QUADS

In the Quads, the former Portuguese champion Arnaldo Martins returned to competitions very strongly and prevailed in the prologue against the leader of the championship João Vale by 4.1s. In the third place in the prologue was Fernando Cardoso. This trio remained at the front of the race, but with João Vale taking the lead from the beginning of the selective sector, finishing the first day with a lead of 1m38s over Arnaldo Martins. The following day Arnaldo Martins gave up early and João Vale dominated without any challenge. He finished 8m ahead of the 2nd place and is getting closer to becoming the 2022 champion. Second place for Fernando Cardoso who won the Promotion class. Tiago Teixeira teammate of the winner ended a podium entirely made of Yamaha bikes. Fourth place for Carlos Reguinga winner of the veterans and Luís Cabrita on KTM closed the Top 5.

SSV: ROBERTO BORREGO REPEATS TRIUMPH AMONG THE SSV

In the SSV, the duel between Gonçalo Guerreiro and Roberto Borrego remains hot with the Portuguese champion adding his third consecutive triumph after a real theatrical coup happened when, 20km from the end, his opponent, who until then had dominated the race, fall victim to brake problems on his Can-Am, letting the victory slip away.

The race started with former motorcycle world champion Hélder Rodrigues surpassing by 0.2s the time set by Gonçalo Guerreiro in the prologue. In third place at 1.1s from the "estrelinha" was Wilson Galo. With Hélder Rodrigues opening the track, it was the ex-champion João Monteiro who started being the fastest in the 160 km of SS1. Until about km60, the command passed to Luís Cidade and then to the champion Roberto Borrego. A very strong finish from Gonçalo Guerreiro allowed him to win the stage with 35.4s of advantage over Roberto Borrego. The 2nd place at the end of the race by Gonçalo Guerreiro, the winner among the juniors, keeps him in the fight for the title. The podium of this Baja Loulé was completed by the duo Luís Cidade/Pedro Mendonça. Nelson Caxias' 4th place also allowed him to stay in the fight for the title. The 5th position for the duo João Monteiro/Nuno Morais ahead of Tiago Guerreiro, and Pedro Grancha who triumphed among the Veterans was in the 7th position. The Stock Class also saw Nelson Saramago in Polaris to lose the victory in the last kilometers to the duo José Morgado/Ruben Delgado in Can-Am, while Vitor Domingos won the TT2 Class and the Yamaha Cup.

The Championship returns on September 23rd for the Baja TT Sharish Reguengos de Monsaraz.

   A huge image gallery wtih more than 5000 photos from Baja Loulé, is available here.

Source: A2 Comunicação / CNTT / FMP
Photos: Imagensdesportivas.com / Rally-Raid Network