Hungarian Baja 2021: Buhler wins on the bikes and Varga seals quad success in Hungary

The Hungarian Baja was staged in the Lake Balaton region around the small town of Várpalota. Victories fell to Sebastian Bühler (Hero) in the motorcycle category and to Juraj Varga (Yamaha) in the quads, despite two special stages being cancelled. Junior rider Konrad Dabrowski (KTM) was classified in seventh and, in the female category, Mirjam Pol (Husqvarna) was 11th ahead of Margot Lloberat (KTM) — also 2nd Junior — and Sarah Khuraibet (KTM).

The first day of this fourth round of the 2021 FIM Bajas World Cup was somewhat epic… just like the second. Event organisers decided to start the motorcycles after the cars and riders duly encountered unusual difficulties oer the damaged and rutted terrain, with banners and signs torn off and cars being delayed. They also had the added hazard of overtaking the slowest of the four-wheel entrants in the dust.

Used to getting up at dawn on Saturday morning, riders were able to sleep in because their departure was at 11.45hrs! Torrential rain had fallen in the area the day before the race began, so they encountered very damaged ground after the passage of the cars. Riders incurred numerous penalties because, despite the road book, they found themselves racing on bad tracks.

The FIM jury decided to cancel the last special on Saturday for safety reasons. Cars had become lost in SS5 and the departure of the motorcycles had been delayed with some riders running the risk of not arriving at nightfall.

A similar decision was taken on Sunday to cancel the last stage (SS7) for safety reasons and to avoid cars and motorcycles overtaking in the dust.

Victory, therefore, fell to Sebastian Bühler (Hero). He said:

“This morning, the track was broken after the cars passed twice yesterday. We still had to manage the banners but I managed to stay focused and gain a little time, despite destroying my rear tyre in 86 km. I'm happy with this performance because I was able to improve at each stage.”

Stefan Svitko (KTM) climbed on to the second step of the podium and Joachim Rodrigues (Hero) was third:

“I didn't feel comfortable attacking on increasingly destroyed ground. So I managed to finish. Our goal was to train and ride the bike for miles for the next rally,” said the Portuguese.

After entering the Baja at the last minute, Mathieu Doveze (KTM) finished fourth: "This is my second Baja. I'm here to learn and store as much information as possible. With the rally bike, it was complicated on this broken ground, you had to stay focused but it was a good exercise."

In the quads, Juraj Varga (Yamaha) won the Baja and finished ahead of the Saudi riders, Haitham Al-Tuwaijiri and Faisal Al-Suwayh. Quad rider Olga Rouckova finished in fourth position.

Source FIM
Photos Hungarian Baja