Last weekend Kamena Rally Team took part in a very prestigious rally, Baja Aragon, held in Spain. Tomasz Białkowski and Dariusz Baśkiewicz showed, how corrida Polish-style looks like, by winning with the whole army of South-European competitors. On each stage, Polish crew was stabbing those furious as bulls drivers with their awesome pace, dealing a final blow in the form of victory in the rally.
Kamena Rally Team continues their rally tournee in Europe – this time the Polish team visited Spain for the first time. Baja Aragon, which was their target, is one of the most prestigious cross-country rallies in Europe. Every year Spanish tracks are mobbed by top competitors, as well as those who want to compete with them. The rally counts for FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas and FIM Cross-Country Bajas World Cup, what means that here top of the tops compete. Entry lists for this year’s edition counted 222 competitors, car, trucks, bikes and quads starting in different categories. Among this army of competitors, there was also Kamena Rally Team crew, Tomasz Białkowski and Dariusz Baśkiewicz, who fought for trophy in Open group in Trofeo Aragon category. Their rivals were mostly Spanish – not only numerous, but also very strong and, above all, knowing local tracks, and also, among others, very fast Portuguese fought against them. Tomasz Białkowski and Dariusz Baśkiewicz had already raced twice against Portuguese drivers, and this time they had a chance to try themselves in a fight against another South-European, temperamental competitors – Spaniards. Local drivers didn’t expect Polish matadors to cope with them so well and, like furious bulls, were attacking Kamena Rally Team crew on each special stage. But it were Tomasz Białkowski and Dariusz Baśkiewicz who were dealing blows to this army of drivers, showing them how corrida Polish-style looks like. They won with a huge advantage in Open group, and among all crews that took part in Trofeo Aragon only one was minimally faster than the Poles.
“We fulfilled our secret dream and kicked Spanish and Portuguese asses – just like they had kicked ours two times already! But mathematics doesn’t lie, and we still have something to come back for to these countries. This year we’ll appear in Portugal on Baja Portalegre, where we’ll try to draw – so that we could start the game from the beginning next year. I love southern style of driving. It’s unique and we haven’t seen it in our part of Europe, but I feel that it’s the closest to me. One can say it’s a “0-1” style – win or die. I love it!” says Tomasz Białkowski.
This southern style of driving, already trained by Kamena Rally Team crew on Portuguese tracks, worked out also in Spain. Here, the stages are also very fast, technical and full of surprises. In Baja Aragon competitors tackled over 503 km of stages in total, divided into two specials – 165 km and 87 km, run twice in two days of the rally. They were very varied as for the surface, because they consisted of fast, gravel parts, as well as twisting and narrow mountain paths, with sharp stones and dangerous clefts. There were also a few water crossings, which took their toll in the form of stuck or even drowned cars. Tomasz Białkowski and Dariusz Baśkiewicz coped with these water surprises perfectly. But on mountain tracks flat tires were a typical problem, and also Kamena Rally Team crew didn’t avoid it. But the Polish crew will remember their other adventure with the biggest emotions – falling down from the ledge. While chasing another crew in the dust, they didn’t notice the turn and fell a few meters down. Happily, their CanAm Maverick X3 landed on wheels, and the crew managed to come back on track and continue the fight. Despite this untypical accident, Tomasz Białkowski and Dariusz Baśkiewicz coped marvelously with the very hard route of Baja Aragon, beating numerous, fast and knowing this kind of traps Spaniards and competitors of other nationalities with a huge advantage. Such success tastes excellent!
“We are very happy with our result in Baja Aragon. The route of the rally was completely new to us, very tough, and the rivals were strong, especially a few Spanish crews with which we fought almost for the seconds. Finally we managed to defeat all competitors from Open group with a big advantage, and in the full classification of Trofeo Aragon only one Spanish crew was a bit faster than us. We showed how corrida Polish-style looks like, what surprised the Spaniards because they must have not thought that somebody from Eastern Europe would be able to challenge them. The more we are happy with our victory here, it’s one of our greatest successes. The opportunity to admire those fantastic Spanish landscapes, which really impress, was a beautiful addition to our result,” says Dariusz Baśkiewicz.
The victory of Kamena Rally Team in prestigious Baja Aragon was a sum of two important components – great and fast driving and perfectly prepared car. The driving technique was trained by Tomasz Białkowski and Dariusz Baśkiewicz on different surfaces during different rallies in which they took part, and the car prepared by PrzemPol did great on tough Spanish tracks, making no trouble to the competitors. Thanks to it, Kamena Rally Team can continue their rally journey, and it will be very intense in the next months. On 3rd-4th August Tomasz Białkowski and Dariusz Baśkiewicz will take part in Polskie Safari Rally in Przasnysz, Poland, less than a week after that they will check in Hungary on Hungarian Baja, and at the end of August they’ll stand on the starting line of the biggest and the most prestigious Polish rally – Baja Poland.
Source: press release of Kamena Rally Team
Translation: Anna Michalska, Rita Konya
