Alberto Pecero, Chief Safety Officer

🎤Hello, I'm Alberto Pecero, the Safety Officer of the Baja Extremadura. I'm responsible for 300 volunteers who help make this race possible. We also have over 50 officials and more than 50 members of the State Security Forces and Corps in helicopters working on the safety of the event.

The race starts tomorrow with a small shakedown near Badajoz, about 8 km.Then, on Thursday evening we have the podium ceremony, and then on Friday morning, we have the prologue here in Badajoz, nearby, the usual prologue, broadcasted on television. This year will be different because being in the evening, we believe there will be less audience. And then in the afternoon, we have a stage that starts in Portugal, in the city of Elvas, and ends here in Badajoz, passing through a stretch in Spain and then ending at General Menacho's military camp. It's a military area where we've managed to incorporate a 30-kilometer section, and it's going to have a quite tough ending. We had to change part of the route because we've had four years of drought here, and suddenly this year, fortunately, water has come and it has rained a lot, changing the terrain a lot from what we had planned at the beginning of the year, so we had to change a lot of the route until a week or two ago.

So, we have fewer kilometers than planned and such. On Saturday, we have two sections of 170 kilometers and 100 kilometers, a bit less than planned due to the water issue. They're the typical sections of the Baja TT Extremadura, with fast areas, and it's quite beautiful, as usual. And the new stage in Portugal is quite different from what we're used to, but well, you have to have a bit of all kinds of terrain, and I think it will be good.

And this year, a month ago, we had part of the organization of the PEP Ultimate Rally Ride, and I think, well, in Extremadura there has always been a lot of passion for motorsport, and this event, with Carlos Sainz, Nasser Alati, brought this discipline closer to many people.

Joao Ferreira (PRT), #200, X-raid MINI JCW Rally Plus, Ultimate Category, European Baja Cup

🎤Hello, João Ferreira here from Badajoz, first round of the European Cup, I really enjoy being here, this is a race I've been doing since 2020, so I like this race a lot, and like I said, this is the first round of the European Cup, and here we are again with the Mini T1 Plus in the Ultimate class, and we will try to finish in the highest place possible, Of course we want to win, the competition will be very tight, but we'll see how it goes, it's not our main target to do the European Cup, but let's see where we can finish in this race.

What do you think about the new regulations?

I think from one way it's good, from another way it's not so good, but it's FIA regulations and we need to deal with it, and for sure we'll enjoy the next races of the World Cup

Do you like the banner here?

Yeah, it's nice, it's always nice to have us in the banner of the race, it's nice to be, it's close to us, Spain, this race is basically in the border with Portugal, so it's almost like a race at home.

Francisco Barreto (PRT) #205, Toyota Hilux, Ultimate Category, European Baja Cup

🎤Hello, my name is Francisco Barreto. I'm a Portuguese driver. We are in Extremadura, at the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura. I think it's going to be a good race, because we were here two years ago, and three weeks ago too. We have a lot of public here. It's a lot good. So, we are going to try to have fun and to win this race, because we are going to do the European Championship, European Cup. So, we need to try to win the overall European Championship of the final.

William Buller (GBR), #403, Yamaha YXZ1000R, SSV group, registered for European Baja Cup

🎤Hi, I'm William Buller. We're at the first round of the European Baja Series. I'll be racing for Yamaha in the SSV category. We're looking forward to a good season. It should be interesting, lots of different terrain. Here at Extremadura, I haven't done Baja before, but I have some experience from doing Transiberico a few weeks ago. It should be something similar, but not the same. The car is prepared well. We did the Carta Rally and we won the Yamaha Desert Challenge, so we'll see how we go this weekend. Fingers crossed, everything goes well.

‼️Experience exceptional physiotherapy services with MANUEL VENTURI‼️

💪 Experienced osteopath using the Taylor Still methodology since 2005.

🏋️‍♂️ Specialized in high competition therapy and musculoskeletal diagnosis and senior professor of biomechanics

Offering services at CENTRO Activate, sports and health in Lorca, Murcia, and in the Cross-Country & Raid TT pilot training area on the coast of Águilas and Almería

Providing Race assistance to pilots and co-pilots, addressing discomfort and fatigue in the race, as well as the release of mobility and activation of physical and cognitive dexterity

📍 Available in the Badajoz Service Park for assistance "ParaBaja-steo by step"

👉Book your session now!
📱 +34623354530
Instagram: @manuventuri1

Extremadura Baja: 2.05.2024

8:00 - 19:00 Administrative checks
9:30 - 19:00 Scrutineering
15:00 - 19:00 Shakedown
18:30 Press Conference
19:30 Briefing
21:00 Ceremonial Start

Benediktas Vanagas (LTU) #201 Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics, Ultimate group

🎤Good morning everyone, maybe midday, here in Spain by Extremadura. It's my second time here and actually here we start European Cup for cross-country bajas. So, yeah, going second time you already know a little bit where we are. So, we just yesterday had a test with Joe Ramos. Actually, it was quite a nice and technical place. You know, I was not driving after the car. So, four months without Halix, it's quite a long period.

So, now let's see what this baja will give us.

What can you tell about European Cup?

Okay, European Cup, we have here six participants who are registered in our class T1+. So, I don't know if all are really want to go for it. Maybe some will join a bit later. So, we'll see, but we are planning to do first three races. So, which is Spain, Italy and Hungary. And afterwards we will see what we're doing later.

What do you think about track here in Extremadura? It's better for Ultimate or Challenger?

I think Challenger is getting faster and faster and better and better. It's really a very good car. So, in some conditions, I mean, it can be faster than T1+. So, here in some places, for sure, they will be damn fast. I remember last year we had a bridge, I mean, with T1+, just cannot fit. So, we were damaging our cars because we didn't fit. But we'll see.

Armindo Araujo (PRT) #303 Santag Racing, G Rally, Challenger group, European Cup

🎤Hello, my name is Armindo Araujo, I'm from Portugal. I'm doing here the first race of the European Championship. I'm also doing the Portuguese Championship in Rallies and also the Portuguese Championship in Off-Road. So, I'm here, I'm really happy to be here to start the European. I will race with the OT3, it will be the first race that I'm doing with this car. I already tested the car one day in Portugal, so comparing with the Can-Am, the cars are really different, the philosophy of the car is different.

In my opinion, in medium parts and fast parts, the OT3 is really fast and strong, but in slow parts and narrow parts of the stage, maybe the Can-Am is more fast because it's more easy to drive. But let's see here, during the Rallies, the speed I will come and the result that I can have in the end, but I'm really, really happy to be here and to start.

It's difficult for me and sometimes I change my mind because I'm coming from the Rallies, arriving in the Off-Road and so I'm always expecting the pace notes, but here I don't have the pace notes, but Pedro Re, my co-driver, is doing a fantastic job and I'm really happy and enjoying the moment. I hope to have a big result here in the European.

What do you think about the competition here in the Challenger category?

Challenger category is for me one of the strongest classes in the races at the moment because you have a lot of cars, you have a lot of drivers pushing hard, all the drivers are really fast and now with new brands coming for this category, the level is very high, so you never know if you can do a podium, a victory or you finish 6th or 7th. So it's really, really difficult to imagine the result of the end of the Rallies, so let's see, but I hope to have a good result in the first race with OT3.

Fernando Alvarez (ARG) #302 G Rally OT3, Challenger group, European Baja Cup

🎤Hello, we are here in Extremadura, Badajoz, for the first round of the European Cup with the G-Rally OT3, like last year, so we did a good last year, so we are happy to be in the same team for the European Cup again this year. Ok, here for that car the track is good, it's more rally track, on the other side there are many many OT3 now, I don't know if there are 7 or 8, there are another big teams that they have also OT3, but ok, it's good, it's good for the team, it's good for the category, to drive all of us the same car also is good, because I always ask for that, you know, just to try to have the same category, all the people with the same track, it's the way to see who is the best pilot.

Two weeks ago we were in Morocco, testing the new Can-Am, we were really happy, and with South Racing we also will make the whole World Cup, so in two weeks we will be in Greece, so happy to be here, to start the season, the weather is good, now it's more rain, but it's supposed to be good during the weekend, no rain is expected, so happy. I hope tomorrow and the day after I will come with better news.

Robert Przybyłovski (POL) 30, KTM 450

Hello. Good day everyone. My name is Robert Przybyłowski. I am from Poland. I am participating in the Extramadura Baja here. I debuted in Polish bajas, the first one was in Drawsko Pomorskie in 2020, those were my first starts. Since then, I have participated in various European rallies, including Hellas Rally and Balkan Rally. The first desert rally I recently participated in, two weeks ago, was the Fenix Rally, a very difficult rally where I took third place and I am very proud about it. I came here to Spain to gain new experiences and improve my skills. I came here with my colleagues, who are here with me. We are a team of four bikes. The fifth motorcycle is next to us, also our friend, who is also racing and taking his first steps in cross-country rallies. There are many crews from Poland, including Małuszyński and Kamena rally team on SSVs, Adam Kus in Challenger. Overall, there are over 150 crews participating here, so the competition is very strong. We will try to ride as best as we can and return home safely. That's how it looks at the moment. Warm greetings to everyone in Poland, keep your fingers crossed, thank you all for the support, to my sponsors for allowing me to have fun, race, and ride here. See you soon, greetings, take care.

Rui Farinha & Rui Pita (PRT) #402, Santag Racing, Can-Am Maverick, SSV Category, European Baja Cup

Good afternoon, I'm Rui Farinha. My longtime colleague here is Rui Pita, my co-driver. We're here at this event to defend our performance from last year. We secured second place in the National Championship, became champions in Portugal last year, and this year we've decided to try the European Championship. Our strategy, we like the track, we loved it, so our strategy will be to see how this event goes and probably compete in the entire European Cup, that's our goal.

We're here to have fun and hope everything goes well, aiming to do our best. We find this event challenging; the course is very good, fantastic even. We hope it's very similar, one day slower, one day faster. I was fortunate to compete in the World Championship just a month ago, and this time I hope to have better knowledge to help Rui achieve a good result. Once again, we're with the Santag team, which gives us a lot of assurances to compete in the European Cup, try to attend as many events as possible, and earn as many points as possible for our Championship.

Hani Alnoumesi (SAU) #109, Yamaha 2011, Quad Category, FIM World Cup

I'm really happy to be here again at Extremadura Baja. It's my second time participating. I raced in the quad category for the FIM World Cup. The weather was great in Badajoz last year, but it's a little cold now since I came from Saudi Arabia. I enjoy Extremadura Baja and have nice memories from last year about roads here.

In the quad category for the FIM World Cup, there will be three of us: me, Haitham, and Abdulaziz. This race is important for me because it's training for Argentina. I'm going to participate in the Desafio Ruta 40 there.