Start Position

William Biller (GBR) #403 Yamaha YXZ1000R, SSV group

🎤It's okay, we just finished the prologue. We'll see what we can do for tomorrow. I have some work to do tonight, so tomorrow is a new day and let's hope we have a strong finish tomorrow evening. The track was very fast and stony, so it was not very technical. So hopefully tomorrow with more technical we'll suit our style better.

Time for football

5.7 Final Classification of the Prologue.pdf

5.8 Start List for Stage 1.pdf

Fernando Barreiros (PRT) #500, ISUZU DMAX, Stock group

I am very happy. We are at Baja Italia. We are currently after the prologue. The prologue was very nice, very technical. A lot of narrow sections, a lot of fast sections. So there was something enjoyable for everyone. You could have some fun with the car. It was quite a fast segment. We are very happy, because I thought it would be much worse. I reversed twice. And besides that, I made two mistakes, so I am very satisfied.

Italian Baja, prologue: rehearsal for Vanagas

https://medium.com/@crosscountryrally/italian-baja-prologue-rehearsal-for-vanagas-c4df91dfe63e

Adam Kus (POL) OT3 Challenger group

The day was generally nice, we started with the shakedown. The shakedown, the temperature was really high, over 30 degrees, so it was warm just the way I like it. The shakedown had a bit of water, so that was a nice cool down as well. Lots of gravel, lots of nice turns, it was great. The organization was excellent, everything was okay. The prologue didn’t go exactly as I planned, but overall I am satisfied. There was also a lot of water. We got a bit lost, but it’s fine. I hope tomorrow will be a great day.

Richard Aczel (GBR) #306 Arcane T3, Challenger group

🎤Hello, so I'm Richard Aczel racing with Allan Harryman. We've just completed the prologue in the Italian Baja, our first ever Baja. We've done Moroccan Desert Challenge and later in the year we hope to go and do Dakar.

So this was the prologue. Tomorrow we have a full day of rallying. It was very muddy, as you can see. The car is very muddy. We enjoyed it, we enjoyed it very much. It was quite fast and twisty, so we were just getting our head around how to navigate through all that and all the water.

We made a little mistake, we missed all of the turnings, so we had a fast recovery to reverse and get back on the track. And we saw lots of spectators out there, so that was really nice seeing people cheering it on. It's fantastic to be here. The weather is good. The people are very friendly. The other competitors are very friendly. The standard is very high. And we're enjoying ourselves very much. We're looking forward to tomorrow.

Italian Baja: programme 06.07.24

🇮🇹 Italian Baja 2024: Stage 1
06.07.2024

➡️Liason start 28.21
📍SS1 94,13 km
⬅️Regrouping in 37,87 km
🛠Service 35 min
Liason start 28.30
📍SS2 94,13 km
⬅️Regrouping in 37,87 km
🛠Service 35 min
Liason start 28.30
📍SS3 94,13 km
⬅️Regrouping in 38.94 km

🕑7:05 Parc Ferme out
🕑8:00 Start SS1
🕑8:55 Finish
🕑12:30 Start SS2
🕑13:25 Finish
🕑 17:00 Start SS3
🕑17:55 Finish

Follow the Italian Baja

Timing: https://rally.ficr.it/#/RAL/tempi/ITALIAN%20BAJA%202024%20-%20EUROPEAN%20BAJA%20CUP/2024/204/12/1/4

Tracking:
https://anubesport.com/es/tracking/?rally=rally6353&port=auto

Italian Baja 2024, SS1 (Challenger)

After yesterday's dominance of the Portuguese at the prologue in the Challenger category, the situation in the race changed this morning.

On the first special stage, the fastest was the Pole Adam Kuś (GRally OT3), who was more than three minutes ahead of the Portuguese João Dias and Paulo Jorge Rodrigues (both from Santag Racing Team).

Another of Portugal's trio of leaders yesterday, Alexandre Pinto, ran into some issues this morning, lost almost a quarter of an hour and was only seventh.

Interestingly, Adam Kuś is now leading not only in the Challenger category, but also in the overall race standings.

SS1 (Challenger, T3)*
1. Kuś/Pasek (GRally)
2. Dias/Ré (Can-Am) +3:18.1
3. Rodrigues/Miranda (Can-Am) +3:49.5
4. Álvarez/Panseri (GRally) +5:14.2
5. Trebitsch M./Trebitsch S. (Bedu) +6:24.5
* - provisional results

Photo Credits: MMProduction

Amerigo Ventura (ITA) #406 Yamaha YXZ1000R, SSV group

🎤Hello guys, Amerigo and Erika with Little Yamaha after the first real stage of the Italian Bahia. We arrived to the end, a lot of water, we are full wet, but we are so happy. Let's say we pushed by taking care that the assistants have limited time, so we tried to arrive to the end with no big issue. We are now doing some setup, setting, we are second in the overall, so impressive that two T4 are leading the category. I have to make a very huge compliment to Fidel, because I know I'm fast here in Italy and he beat me at the first stage and the first time he did the race, so really congratulations to him, but it's not finished.

Italian Baja 2024, SS1 (SSV)

In the production SSV category, the results of the first special stage completely repeat the results of yesterday's prologue - none of the six crews changed their position.

The battle for the leadership between Spaniard Fidel Castillo Ruiz and Italian Amerigo Ventura continues. The first special stage turned out favorably for the Spaniard, who was a minute and a half ahead of the local contender for victory.

Fidel Castillo Ruiz and Amerigo Ventura now hold the second and third positions in the overall race standings. Castillo is less than ten seconds behind Polish race leader Adam Kuś (Challenger).

SS1 (SSV, T4)*
1. Castillo/Mota (BRP Can-Am)
2. Ventura/Mingozzi (Yamaha) +1:33.8
3. Białkowski/Baśkiewicz (BRP Can-Am) +2:30.9
4. Prat/Del Cid (Yamaha) +3:59.0
5. Buller/Jorado (Yamaha) +4:01.1
* - provisional results

Joao Dias (PRT) #302 Santag Racing, Can-Am Maverick, Challenger group

🎤We are here at the end of the first stage of the second day in Italy, a difficult stage where we were the fourth car on the road, and unfortunately, the new competitors ahead of us had problems, so we did a thousand kilometers as the lead car, with very difficult navigation. We had two or three navigation errors, which is part of it, but Ré managed to get out of those problems very well. Therefore, we are in second place, I think, in the Challenger category, now trying to recover in the afternoon. Thank you.

Joao Ferreira (PRT) #200, X-raid Team, MINI JCW Rally Plus, Ultimate group
.
🎤So, we have just finished the proper first stage here in Italy. It was around 80-90 km stage. There was a lot of water crossings in the beginning and after it was super narrow. I've never seen anything like this. And we have also some issues with the battery. The bolt is untight and we have to stop it to fix it. So, we lost a lot of time and a lot of problems with the windscreen as well because of the battery. So, a day to forget. The word of the day was surviving, not driving because i don't know super super narrow some parts first gear touching everywhere I couldn't see nothing just trees and water but okay it's our chance to fight for the win it's very difficult we have to be honest but we have to think about the championship and most important thing is to score as many points as possible

Italian Baja 2024, SS1 (Ultimate)

In the Ultimate category, almost all of the main podium contenders suffered a crushing defeat against the Italian track.

Already on the first special stage the Lithuanian Benediktas Vanagas (Toyota Hilux T1+), the Pole Michał Małuszyński (Mini JCW Rally Plus) and the Portuguese Francisco Barreto (Toyota Hilux T1+) were eliminated for various reasons.

Portuguese João Ferreira (Mini JCW Rally Plus) was also not so lucky, as he ran into difficulties, lost almost half an hour and was only third in the Ultimate category.

The winner of the first special stage unexpectedly became the Italian Manuele Mengozzi on Toyota Hilux group T1.1. The second finisher was his compatriot Andrea Schiumarini, who started for the first time on the rear-wheel drive buggy Century CR6.

P.S. The Clerk of the Course allocates times for crews Magdalena Zając (Toyota) and Pál Lónyai (Porsche).

SS1 (Ultimate, T1/T1+)*
1. Mengozzi/Brun (Toyota)
2. Schiumarini/Gerini (Century) +3:50.4
3. Zając/Czekan (Toyota) +11:47.0
4. Lónyai/Toth (LPR Porsche) +18:05.0
5. Fereira/Palmeiro (Mini) +23:07.6
* - provisional results

Photo Credits: Massimo Zuin

Miquel Prat (ESP) #402 Yamaha YXZ1000R, SSV group

🎤We have finished the first section of the first special stage of Baja Italy. Very surprised by how it is. Right from the start, we entered a large river, crossing the water several times, flooding inside the river. It was cold, and I was very surprised by what it would be like, you know? We continued through beautiful, narrow areas, inside the forest, which are very fun, but I suppose because of the recent rains these past weeks, there is a lot of mud and water, and we were constantly submerged in rivers and water. This also caused our intercoms to fail, and I couldn't hear my co-driver, complicating things a lot when braking at intersections and dangers. Well, we managed to get through as best as we could. I'm quite amazed by how this baja is. I wasn't used to these terrains at all, but well, you learn from everything, and now we'll see how we do in the two remaining sections.