It's time for the Italian Baja to finally start, and we are back with our race reports from sunny and buzzing Pordenone. This is the first event on this year's calendar counting for both the World Cup and the European Cup, and under the new rules, crews had to choose in which series they want to score points in Italy. Let's see, who chose what – there have been some interesting decisions…
Interviews: Mashael Al-Obaidan and Armand Monleon, Tomasz Bialkowski
T3 (light prototype)
In T3, many of the World Cup frontrunners are missing from Italian Baja. The leader, Fernando Alvarez (ARG, 64 points) will be at the start, however, runner-up Saleh Al-Saif (SAU, 56 points) hasn't travelled to Italy. They are followed by three Russian drivers in the standings, Pavel Silnov (47 points), Anastasiya Nifontova (40 points) and Armen Puzian (34 points) who cannot participate for the well-known reasons.
Last year's T3 champion in World Cup for Bajas, Dania Akeel (30 points) is currently 6th in the standings with a 7th place in Russia and a 4th in Jordan, and is set to continue scoring points in Pordenone. 8th placed Filipe Nascimento (POR, 19) will start in Italy, but he opted for the European Cup, just like Ricardo Ramilo (ESP, 8 points), currently 10th. Mashael Al-Obaidan has 7 points in the World Cup and will also start in the Italian Baja.
For Guillaume De Mevius this first start since the Dakar is full of novelties as this will be the maiden race of the new team he founded in February and he also has a new co-driver. Erik Van Loon and his wife Anja will start in a pair of Can-Ams, both prepared by South Racing. Young Pau Navarro (ESP) is set to make his debut in the World Cup.
In the European Cup, reigning champion Santi Navarro has already built a solid lead by winning both Baja Extremadura and Rally Greece Off-Road. The Catalan tops the standings with 79 points, while his compatriot and teammate, Jordi Segura is second at 42. Portugal's Filipe Nascimento is third at 32 points, followed by Bernd Hoffmann, a German driver competing under Spanish flag at 28 points.
Ricardo Ramilo (ESP, 26 points) was leading in Greece until the last day before technical problems relegated him to third position. After two rounds he is fifth in the standings, but is definitely set to improve this position in Pordenone. Hungary's Lorinc Meszaros, currently sixth, cannot take the start in the Italian Baja.
Mashael Al Obaidan and Armand Monleon:
M.O. I already finished Dakar at the beginning of this year. Then from the desert we went to Russia – the 1st round of bajas. Today I’m in Italy, I’m pretty excited, for sure the terrain is new, but I’m ready to experience it and to have lots of fun. This is my co-pilot, he finished Dakar 7 times. I’m excited to race with him in Italy and I’m ready to learn a lot from him.
A.M. It’s our first time together, looking forward to start tomorrow with a shakedown and to know each other inside the car. I have a good feeling. We make two loops in the same stage it means there is lots of routs in the special stage so it means that we need to take care with the special settings, we’ll try to fix the setup of the car to manage the route.
M.O. I love the design of my car, it was made by sponsor Cargo. I’m excited to be racing with them for the 3d time. And I told them that we are both addicted to speed. We’ll see what happens.
T4 (standard SSV)
In T4, Sergei Remennik (RUS), topping the standings at 40 points, has to miss the event, but runner-up Mshari Al-Thefiri (KWT, 39 points) will be in Pordenone. Miguel Angel Valero (ESP), 4th at 33 points and Kees Koolen, 5th at 31 points will also take the start, just like 7th placed Cristiano De Sousa (BRA, 21 points), 8th placed Egidijus Valeisa (LTU, 19 points), and Eduard Pons (ESP, 13 points).
Poland's Tomasz Bialkowski has shown his outstanding skills in Baja Russia, but hasn't scored any points in the World Cup yet, however, in Italy he has opted for the latter, so although he is currently first in the European Cup at 71 points, he is quite likely to lose the lead to his Italian rival Amerigo Ventura (70 points).
Spain's Miguel Angel Valero (third at 44 points) and Lithuania's Egidijus Valeisa (fifth at 26 points) have chosen the World Cup. Lina van de Mars (DEU) is currently 6th in the European Cup at 16 points, while for Poland's Adam Kus this is the first start in the series.
Tomasz Białkowski: "It’s our 3d time here. First time we won, 2d time we got a little bit of a problem with the car. And now it’s our 3d time. We think that we are very professional with the car. We are waiting for the prolog. We count for a good place, cause first 10 starting with a 3 minutes gap, it’s very important for us and fingers crossed.
We participate in the World cup and it’s a second round for us. We are the leaders in the European cup but we choose World cup, because we still want to fight in this competition – that was our goal from the start and I think till the end we will fight for the first place."
Text: Rita Kónya
Interviews: Sveta Amelichkina
