Rali dos Sertões: Baumgart takes control of the operations on the 1st stage

The Sertões Rally triple winner Christian Baumgart started this year's edition in the same way as last year, by winning the 1st stage.  The Brazilian and his co-driver Beco Andreotti took 2h39min35s to go from start to finishing, winning the stage by more than one minute to Guilherme Spinelli e Yousseff Haddad.  While Baumgart could use all the potential of his Ford Ranger to set the fastest time, his rival Spinelli took a more cautious (but also sucessful) aproach since he is making the racing début of his new L200 Triton Sport Racing. Luiz Facco/Humberto Ribeiro in Giaffone Racing Buggy V8 finished third 2m20s behind the winner.
The stage was hard and fast, with many jumps along the way and not all were able to get to the finish, caught in the many traps the route had. One of the early "victims" was Sylvio de Barros that had a high speed crash on one of those jumps. No one got injured, despite the extensive damage on the car.

"Today was a very fast day, with many jumps, more jumps and jumps all the time and this was only a preview for the race that is just starting. We got the lead neckless, a novetly of this race, and one action that works as an incentive, for you at each stage to try harder to keep it or conquer it if you are behind. We want to keep it to Fortaleza" - Said Baumgart at the end of the stage.

On the SSV category Reinaldo Varela (Can-Am) gave no chance and took the lead of the rally, while in the motorbikes the winner was Ricardo Martins (Yamaha) and finally on the quads was Marcelo Medeiros (Yamaha) who got the fastest time.

Rally-Raid Network 
Source Rali dos Sertões
Photo: Marcelo Machado