The Baja España-Aragón got under way on Friday afternoon in Gea de Albarracín with the prologue, more than two months after the rally had to be postponed because of wildfire risk. Bikes, quads and cars covered a shortened 6.5-kilometre loop that sets the starting order for the first stage. Saturday brings the two toughest special stages of the weekend, together good for more than 330 kilometres.
Among the bikes, debutant David Braceras was the fastest, ahead of defending champion Lorenzo Santolino. In the car category the rally’s tracking system caused quite a stir: Saood Variawa was first credited as the fastest, but after an investigation into several competitors cutting a corner at the same point on the course, Luis Portela moved up to first place after all. Seven Dutch crews took part in the cars, with Mitchel van den Brink the best in the Challenger class, and in the truck category too the fastest time went to a Dutchman, Tjeerd van Ballegooij.
Braceras surprises on debut, Santolino and Pellicer follow
Among the bikes it was MX2 champion David Braceras who set the fastest time, in his very first rally on a Honda 450 and with support from former winner Joan Barreda. Braceras clocked 4:06.3 and finished sixteen seconds ahead of Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco), last year’s winner. Alfredo Pellicer took third on his KTM, ahead of Javi Vega on the Kove. Among the quads Tomás Coutinho Paulo was fastest, while Dani Vila and Toni Vingut filled the remaining podium places in that category. Sara García was the best female competitor, ahead of Nora Esteban and Esther Merino.
Variawa fastest at first, but penalised for cutting
A remarkable situation developed in the cars. Immediately after the prologue the pairing of Saood Variawa and Charan Moore (Toyota Hilux EVO) were listed as fastest, just ahead of defending champion João Ferreira. The organisation reported that order in the day’s first bulletin as well. The rally’s tracking system, however, revealed that several competitors had cut a corner at the same point on the course, in breach of the roadbook that must be followed.
The stewards examined the matter in two separate sessions. In the various stewards decisions a large number of competitors were given ten penalty seconds for this infringement. The stewards’ considerations show that the crews of cars 201, 214 and 221 had also been heard earlier for the same offence. Variawa’s Toyota, number 201, received the heaviest penalty of thirty seconds and dropped in the final result from first to 21st place.
As a result Luis Portela, with navigator Carlos Jorge Mendes for Overdrive Racing in a Toyota Hilux EVO, became the fastest in the final classification after all, with a time of 4:11.2. Guillaume de Mévius and Mathieu Baumel (X-raid Mini) followed a tenth of a second behind, with Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Dennis Zenz (Toyota) third at 2.5 seconds. Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro were fourth after their own ten-second penalty, ahead of Gonçalo Guerreiro and Joel Lutas, who set the fastest time in the Challenger class with the Taurus Evo Max. In the SSV category Afonso Oliveira and Daniel Jordao (BRP Can-Am Maverick R) were fastest.
The prologue result, as usual, does not count towards the overall classification but does determine the starting order for the first special stages. Sébastien Delaunay, navigator to Dania Akeel, was mainly looking ahead afterwards: “Not our best result of the season, but we’re ready for tomorrow. The real race starts now, with almost 600 kilometres of special stages this weekend.”
Seven Dutch crews in the cars
The Netherlands is represented by seven crews in the FIA class. Mitchel van den Brink and Bart van Heun (South Racing Can-Am, Maverick R) posted the fifth time in the Challenger class and fourteenth overall. Van den Brink said afterwards that the team starts the weekend with a new livery and setup: “After a short break we’re back! We gave it everything, but there was nothing more in it today. Tomorrow it’s time to attack, close the gap and reconnect with the Tauruses.”
Henk Klaassen and Sasha Siripanyavuthi, in Daklapack Rallysport’s Taurus T3 Max, were the best Dutch Challenger crew, with the second time in the class and ninth overall. Pim Klaassen and Leander Pienaar drove a Red-Lined DKR Evo GTR to the ninth time in the Ultimate class for the same team. Rients Hofstra and Wouter de Graaff followed with a Red-Lined REVO GTR in tenth in that same class.
Sander Derikx and Michael Schuttel (Daklapack Rallysport, Taurus Evo Max) were eleventh in the Challenger class. Johan and Yvet Senders made their first kilometres in the car with Rebellion Spierings’ Taurus Evo Max and finished thirteenth in the class. The team reported a small navigation error afterwards, but overall a successful first outing: “There was a small slip along the way, but that comes with the territory when you’re getting to know a new car. All in all everything went well and, more importantly, they came back happy from the experience.” Richard Timmerman and Kala Senders rounded off the Dutch entry with the fastest time in the T1.1 class, in a Toyota Hilux.
Van Ballegooij fastest truck
In the truck category the fastest time went to Tjeerd van Ballegooij, who drove the MAN to 6:03.9 with Anthony Dekker and Dick Zuurmond. Gerrit Zuurmond followed 2.2 seconds behind with Jan van der Vaet and Jaap Zuurmond in the second MAN. Czech driver Karel Poslední was third, ahead of the Dutch trio William de Groot, Koen Hendriks and Remon van der Steen. That put the Dutch teams in three of the four starting places in this category, and in the top two positions after the prologue as well.
Saturday’s first proper stage begins with two special stages of 151 and 180 kilometres.
