Lucas Moraes/Kaike Bentivoglio won their first Sertões rally (cars)
Denisio Nascimento/Idali Bosse finish first in UTV (SSV/SxS)
Tunico Maciel for the second time on the motorbike category
Marcelo Medeiros gives no chance and scores 3rd overall victory in Brazil's most important race
Sertões Rally 2019 finished last Sunday on the Atlantic shore in Aquiraz, Ceará State, North of Brazil. The race started one week ago in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul and travelled north for almost 4900 kilometers until reaching the end. Along the way the participants have to fight against the clock, their adversaries, the terrain and even themselves during 2858 special stage kilometers
This years edition looks like a succession story, with newer generations rising to power and take their place as the protagonist on Brazil's largest event. The exceptions where in the Motorbikes where Tunico Macial conquered the victory for the second time on his career, and on the Quad Category where Marcelo Medeiros was on a league of his own, giving no space for anyone else to come close. Despite the results, the fight for the top places was in most cases quite hard, demanding from the participants focus, reliability and speed. In reality the what happened was that the new guys were simply strong than the rest.
On the car category Lucas Moraes/Kaike Bentivoglio scored their first ever overall victory, taking his Ford Ranger to the first place overall. Moras was driving an older generation of the Ford Ranger he got from X-Rally Team, but his speed and fallibility of the car took him to the top spot, leaving the latest generation Ford Rangers from X-Rally behind.
Cristian Baumgart was one of the main contenders for the overall victory, flying low over the Brazilian roads on the first part of the rally. Guilherme Spinelli racing his new Mitsubishi for the first time was another one that was always on the top of the classification. But to be first in the end, first you need to reach the end, and the Marathon stage put an end to the victory aspirations of these two. Baumgart rolled on the 1st part of the stage, Spinelli on the second. Moraes got his path clear and did what was expected, pushing to the finish to score his first victory, while Baumgart finished second and Spinelli third.
"This was a rally were we learned lot, with a first day very hard, where we were still trying to understand the car and realizing how fast the monsters Cristian (Baumgart), Guiga (Guilherem Spinelli) and Marcos (Baumgart) drive. We were picking up speed, trying to finish stages, and we also had a bit of lick on the Marathon Stage due to the problems Cristian and Spinelli suffered. We arrived to the end on frist place on our second attempt at Sertões Rally. It's incredible. I want to thank to X-Rally and to MEM. Winning a rally know to be the longest and hardest is a feeling very special." said Lucas Moraes upon arrival.
From start to finish, the most balanced category was the UTV (SSV/SxS). Overall winner Denisio Nascimento managed to finish almost all special stages on the top3, and was one of the very few to keep the speed to fight with the Varela Family members who were consistently the fastest, sharing the race lead. But in an event were no one makes errors neither the vehicles have mechanical problems, strategy will come into play and this was the detail that gave victory to Denisio Nascimento/Idali Bosse who found the right moment to attack and gain precious seconds.
"On the last two editions the victory escaped from us, so we were completely focused for this year's event to conquer this dream. The race was very hard, but the performance of our Can-Am Maverick X3 was amazing, giving us a lot of trust and was fundamental for our result. To control of the vehicle on the UTV (SSV/SxS) category doesn't come by chance." said the Denisio Nascimento.
On the Motorbikes, Tunico Maciel won 5 out of the 8 stages of this rally. Jean Azevedo, that already won this race seven times had problems on the first stage that delayed him, and from this point forward he raced all stages full throttle, but wasn't able to catch Maciel, finishing the race in second. Very far behind, losing more than 1h44m finished Ricardo Martins in third place.
Finally in the Quad category, one name rise above all the others - Marcelo Medeiros, that made a race without any competition. His speed had no match on the rest of the field and in the end, after 8 stages Medeiros had an advantage of 11 hours - exactly, hours, not minutes. Medeiros total time was 39h10m, while second placed Mirton Martens finished with 60h11m. Wescley Dutra finished third, with 60h16m.
2019 Sertões Rally had 187 vehicles at the start. 158 finished the race, including 57 motos, 6 quads, 49SSV and 29 cars.
2019 SERTOES RALLY FINAL RESULTS (Top 3 of each category)
CARS
1) #323 Lucas Moraes/Kaique Bentivoglio, T1-Codasur, Ford Ranger X-Rally, 30h33m04s
2) #301 Cristian Baumgart/Beco Andreotti, T1-Codasur, Ford Ranger X Rally, 30h41m49s
3) #302 Guilherme Spinelli/Youssef Haddad, T1-Codasur, L200 Triton Sport Racing, 33h31m56s
UTVs
1) #202 Denisio do Nascimento/Idali Bosse, Pro Elite, Can-Am X3, 33h32min38s
2) #210 Reinaldo Varela/Gustavo Gugelmin, Over, Can-Am X3, 33h52min12s
3) #216 Rodrigo Varela/Fábio Pedroso, Pro, Can-Am X3, 34h03min39s
MOTORBIKES
1) #1 Tunico Maciel, Production Aberta, Honda CRF 450RX, 34h03min18s
2) #3 Jean Azevedo, Super Production, Honda CRF 450RX, 34h27min35s
3) #2 Ricardo Martins, Super Production Yamaha WR 450F, 36h11min09s
QUADRICICLOS
1) #102 Marcelo Medeiros, Taguatur Racing Team, 39h10min39s
2) #107 Milton Martens, Martens Rally Team, 60h11min07s
3) #101 Wescley Dutra, Girão Racing, 60h16min32s
Rally-Raid Network
Source Sertoes Rally - Photo Doni Castillo / Vitor Eleuteriio
