Baja Portalegre 500 2019: Helder Oliveira on Baja Portalegre racing a X-Raid Mini

Still more than one month away for the scheduled date for Baja Portalegre, news are starting to appear about the plans of several teams and that let the public anticipate what could be one of the most interesting races from recent times.  The most recent driver to turn public his plans was Helder Oliveira, who is returning to Baja Portalegre with a world-class racing car to mark is début on Portugal's  most famous race.  Helder Oliveira will race Baja Portalegre 2019 in a Mini All4 Racing from the german team X-Raid, with Paulo Fiuza as his co-driver.  

"The opportunity to race a car with such a high winning potential is directly connected to the relationship between M-Racing and X-Raid, and i want to thank  all the effort  they made to turn this participation from a wish into reality. It's the return to this team 20 years after my debut, because it was with MRacing that i raced in a car for the first time in Baja Portalegre 1999. This will be my 17th participation - 2 were in moto - and i do not hide that i still dream into climbing to the 1st place. We will have the chance to do a practice session in the beginning of October, which is important because i'm stopped for almost a year, but more than that, i want to know the most i can about the Mini to be able to take advantage of his characteristics from the start of the race", said Helder Oliveira on his official statement.

Baja Portalegre 2019 will be the final race from all the Portuguese championships and also from FIA Baja World Cup.   It will be raced from 24 to 26 of October in Alto Alentejo and Ribatejo regions in the center of Portugal.  The program for the cars will have 508 racing kilometers, starting with the traditional prologue on friday morning followed by the 90km SS2. On Saturday the race will feature the usual 2 selective sectors for Cars, with about 180 km each and only one selective sector for Bikes, Quads and SSV with about 350 km. The Promotion classes, Car and Bike, will only perform a selective sector of about 200 km. At the end of the day the Podium Ceremony (Parc Fermé) will be held and later the usual Prize Giving Ceremony at Nerpor. This year the organizers introduced new features along the itinerary and part of the race will use tracks that aren't used for a long time and even some other that are completely new.

More news about Baja Portalegre can be found here: https://www.rallyraidnetwork.com/rally/index.php/component/tags/tag/baja-portalegre.html

Baja Portalegre 500 official site is here: https://www.bajaportalegre500.com

Sources:  Helder Oliveira official press release   // Baja Portalegre  

Photo: Rally-Raid Network (for ilustration purposes only)