Baja TT Rota do Douro Verde, that should had been the 4th and next race of the Portuguese championship was cancelled just one week before the start leaving drivers, teams and fans unhappy with the organizer and the portuguese federation.
This is the second time in just three years that Gondomar Automóvel Sport was forced to take the decision to cancel the event. Behind this unfortunate decision, and according the organizer, is an unexpected and enormous increase in costs, specially about the policing of the roads and rescue and safety operations. In the official press release sent by the organizer it is said that: "the costs for the policing, security and rescue increased substantial, when compared with 2019 edition, despite the having the same human and material resources. In one of the case the increase was just 30%, but in the other it was superior to a unbeliavable 1000%."
Despite the justification of the organizers, many were the voices that joined in a choir of critics against both organizers and federation. As for the organization, the main critic made was about the delay for releasing information of the canceling of the race and doing so close to the scheduled date, letting many go deep into the preparations for this event. As for the federation, many criticised low-level of oversight over the organizers and for not having in place measures that prevent this kind of situation, specially because it is not new.
The 2019 Portuguese championship was already shorter than usual with only 6 races where in other editions they were 8, but now is even shorter with just 5 events, with only 2 more remaining to be raced - Baja TT Idanha-a-Nova and Baja Portalegre. The fight for the championship was open with several teams trying to get 2019 crow, but after last week events, Alexandre Ré that was leading the competition with 2 second places and 1 overall victory became the absolute favourite. The VW Amarok is in a very comfortable situation, where depens mostly upon himself to do clean races and with no need to fight for the overall victory in any of the 2 remaining events.
Note: This news is related only with the car category Championhip, as all the others - Moto, Quad and SSV have a different schedule and some different events.
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