Baja TT Montes Alentejanos 2021: Roberto Borrego wins the first race of the season

Nearly 70 participants took the start of the 1st race of the Portuguese SSV championship. Among the many candidates to the overall victory,  Roberto Borrego, now racing in a side-by-side vehicle after several national titles and countless victories in quads, was the big winner of the Baja TT Montes Alentejanos which, during the past weekend, enlivened the tracks in the municipalities of Beja, Serpa, and Mértola.

The fight for the first positions was once again extremely tough with more than 70 SSVs competing in this super competitive category, on the opening day of the National Cross-Country Championship Road to Dakar 2021.

After Luis Cidade's dominance on the first day of the race, the second day saw Roberto Borrego take command of the race. The driver entered by SGS Car Racing finished the stage conquering his first triumph in this discipline. Excellent performance by JB Racing's Sebastian Guyette, the most established driver in Central Europe, who also passed through the lead, but finished the race in the second position, just 59s behind the race winner. However, a one-minute penalty gave this position to the duo João Monteiro/Victor Melo, who finished only 4s behind the Belgian driver.

Also excellent was the 4th place of Ricardo Domingues, with Guyette competing for solo, who won among the veterans, ahead of Alexandre Pinto, navigated by Fábio Belo, who triumphed among the juniors. All the drivers in this Top 5 were driving CanAm cars.

The remaining winners of this race were André Rodrigues among the TT2, Dorothee Ferreira, among the ladies, and Ruben Rodrigues in the Promotion class. This year, the SSV competition has a new Trophy associated with the Stock Class for pilots who use FOX shock absorbers. Tiago Guerreiro triumphed both in the Class and in the Trophy.

At the end of the competition, Roberto Borrego pointed out that this...

"...Was a good start to the Championship. The race started well on Saturday morning with the prologue. The stages were tough and we didn't win but were good for us, and we knew we had lost some unnecessary time with some exits of the road, which are situations that happen to all pilots. The first stage was very fast and we gained a lot of time in the middle of it. Then I saw that Luís had a puncture in the last 55km and I managed to pass him. I gained some advantage there. In the last stage I was managing the advantage, but about 30km from the finish we had a flat tire and we had to come to the end. So I still was able to manage all the advantage we had and we were able to win with a fairly comfortable margin.

João Monteiro, in second place, 1 minute and 4s behind the winner said:

"Beja was the stage for a great race, with a very fast and technical track where there was a lot of fun but any excess could lead to a beautiful roll-over or bump. It was not an easy race, but we came back home very happy after a weekend of great driving and with a very prepared Can-Am up to these challenges thanks to the fantastic technical structure of South Racing".

From the official press releases