The first full competitive day of the Italian Baja reshuffled the pack considerably. Across two stages totalling over 156 kilometres around Pordenone, raced in intense heat and thick dust clouds, several favourites fell behind. Portuguese driver Francisco Barreto took the overall lead in his SVR Toyota Hilux Evo after the opening day’s racing.
For Dutch fans, the day brought both good and bad news. Paul Spierings sits second overall in his Taurus and also holds a comfortable lead in the Challenger class. For Mitchel van den Brink, the day proved difficult after problems with the cooling system and brakes.
Favourites stumble, Barreto capitalises
In the first stage, Saood Variawa and co-driver Charan Moore were fastest in their Toyota Hilux Evo. Barreto, Benediktas Vanagas and João Ramos followed within a minute. The day quickly took a different shape, however. Overall leader Dania Akeel made a navigation error, tearing a wheel off her Toyota in the process and losing over an hour. Variawa, winner of the morning stage, retired from the afternoon stage with mechanical problems outside the maximum time allowance and dropped out of contention for victory.
Barreto made the most of his opportunities. He won the second stage, with Hamed Al-Wahaibi 20.7 seconds behind, and closed the opening day as the overall leader. Vanagas, with co-driver Aisvydas Paliukenas the leading representative of the European Baja Cup, sits third. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari also ran into trouble: the Qatari QMMF Team driver crashed in the second stage. He and navigator Max Delfino were unharmed, but the car sustained damage. In the SSV class, Briton Sean Haran took the lead.
Spierings impresses, Van den Brink struggles
Paul Spierings and Mark Salomons had an excellent day. In the morning stage they set the fastest time in the Challenger class, despite having to stop several times to clear leaves from the radiator. In the drier afternoon stage they came second in their class. That leaves the duo not only second overall but also leading the Challenger standings by nearly five minutes.
The day was far less straightforward for Mitchel van den Brink and Bart van Heun. “A disappointing day for us, we had problems with the cooling system. That meant stopping several times to let it cool down,” Van den Brink told RallyTracks. “This afternoon we lost our brakes after 15 to 20 kilometres, they were only working at about 20 percent. We lost a lot of time because of that, but we are still running. Tomorrow we go for revenge.” The duo sits sixth overall and third in the Challenger class.
Erik van Loon and Wouter Rosegaar recovered well after a quiet prologue. A strong second stage lifted them to third in the SSV class and eighth overall. In the Challenger battle, Al-Wahaibi with Polish navigator Maciej Giemza completes the picture for the Dutch team Daklapack Rallysport, sitting fifth overall and second in class.
Final day decides
On Sunday, the closing “Tagliamento” stage of just over 94 kilometres will determine the final standings of the World Cup event. The prize ceremony is scheduled for 14:00 at Pordenone Fiere.
