António Maio (moto), Luís Engeitado (quad) and Roberto Borrego/Nuno Antunes (SSV) triumphed
While the Portuguese "car caravan" is still on vacation, all the other categories returned to action in the past weekend in Alentejo, to race Raid da Ferraria 2021. António Maio on Yamaha in the motorcycles, Luís Engeitado, also on Yamaha in the quad and the duo Roberto Borrego/Nuno Abrantes on Can-Am in SSV were the big winners of the Raid Ferraria, third stage of the CNTT Road to Dakar.
After being absent in 2020 due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the Raid Ferraria presented an excellent inscription list with near 120 participants and counted with 360 km of chronometers, divided in three selective sectors in Abrantes, Gavião and, also new, Ponte de Sor tracks. Organized by Centro Cultural Recreativo e Desportivo da Ferraria (CCRDF) the Ferraria Raid started on Friday with the verifications in Rossio Sul do Tejo (Abrantes). On Saturday, 240 km were covered by the clock and on Sunday the competitors had another 120 km.
In the motorcycles, the champion António Maio confirmed the superiority of his pace, winning for the third time in a row this season. He won all three specials and finished with an advantage of almost seven minutes for the second place. In the following positions finished the TT3 and TT1 Class winners. Second place for Bruno Santos on a Husqvarna and third place for Gustavo Gaudêncio on a Honda. Without a prologue and starting quite behind because he wasn't a priority (he hasn't competed for 5 years) the Honda pilot lost a lot of time in the first two SS and only in SS3 he overtook Bruno Santos. Young João Duarte on a Yamaha was 4th and won among the juniors. 5th place for a returning João Rato who, on a Yamaha, triumphed in the promotion class. After an accident in the CNTT's opening round, Micael Simão, the pilot revealed in 2020, returned to competition, taking 6th place at the controls of a Gas Gas. Paulo Santos and Janaina Sousa both on Honda triumphed respectively in the veterans and in the ladies.
As in the bikes, Quad champion Luís Engeitado won the three selective sectors and managed to add the second victory this season as many as the number of races in which he participated. A race marked by the abandonment of championship leader Luís Fernandes in SS1 with the engine of his bike broken. 2nd place for Fábio Ferreira on Yamaha which rises to 2nd place in the championship. 3rd place for a returned Filipe Silva on Suzuki. 4th place for Ricardo Rodrigues on Yamaha who won the Promotion Class in a race where Carlos Reguinga won among the veterans and Rafael Carvalho among the juniors.
In the SSV's it was from the first kilometers that the former Quad Champion Roberto Borrego presented himself as the fastest in the race. Vitor Santos, Luís Cidade both in Can-Am and Mário Franco in Yamaha also appeared in the first places, but for different reasons they were soon out of the fight for the first positions. Borrego also had problems in the final part of the section that would be won by junior Gonçalo Guerreiro, ahead of João Dias and João Monteiro.
However, after 120 km the top 10 had only 1m31s separating them. The second 120 km had Alexandre Pinto as the fastest, but the young man who shone in the Sertões had already lost much time in SS1. 17s behind was Roberto Borrego ahead of João Dias and João Monteiro. At the end of the first stage Roberto Borrego and João Dias were separated by a mere second.
Third place at 1m11s for championship leader João Monteiro while Gonçalo Guerreiro dropped to fourth. Pedro Carvalho was 5th and Alexandre Pinto moved up from 16th to 8th. In the last section Roberto Borrego didn't give chances and won 23s to Gonçalo Guerreiro and 55s to João Dias. João Monteiro's third position allowed him to keep the championship leadership.
Gonçalo Guerreiro's 4th place, winner among the juniors, was excellent, while Pedro Carvalho closed the top 5, triumphing among the veterans.
With a 4th time in SS3 Alexandre Pinto finished 6th in a race that had in the next positions the veterans Fabrice Rousseau and Romeu Martins and the former champion Pedro Santinho Mendes. The debutant duo Sérgio Leite/Nuno Lopes won in the Promotion Class. In a race where three ladies were presented as navigators the Frenchwoman Dorothee Ferreira was the only one to take the lead and, therefore, triumphed in the Ladies Cup.
Stock Fox Trophy
Despite having lost two of its main drivers - Tiago Guerreiro due to absence and Rui Serpa in the first few kilometers - the Stock machines (closer to the series vehicles) had an excellent performance with victory for the duo José and Pedro Garcia, 10th overall immediately ahead of Miguel Cunha. António Cuco finished the podium.
Yamaha Cup
Victory in the Yamaha Cup for Luís Caseiro with Francisco Palmela in 2nd place. The duo André Rodrigues/Rui Porto Nunes, two-time champions of this competition finished the podium after a very unlucky day.
Automatic translation from the official press release
Photos Rally-Raid Network
