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

🎤Today, in the morning, there was a prologue, 6 kilometers, and then after regrouping, there was the second stage around 90 kilometers. The beginning of the stage was very nice, and everything was easy, but the second part was very difficult in the military zone. It was very bumpy and dangerous. Very hard, but we had fun.

Benediktas Vanagas (LTU) #201 Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics, Ultimate group.
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🎤So, stage one. Only 89 kilometers, in Dakar, understanding that it's absolutely nothing, but in this case it was really a proper stage. So, okay, out of these 89 kilometers we had two transit zones, so it's minus 23 kilometers, so it's even slower. But actually the last part, last maybe 30 kilometers, was in a tank polygon in the military zone. That's a pity we cannot show it on board, because it's military area, but it was the nicest stage I drove ever with that car.

I mean, you know where the tanks go? Actually, it's a proper place to go for that car. So, it was really fun. Okay, overall we're fifth, second among the cars. We were lost for some time, it was really tricky navigation, and the last two kilometers drove like that, so we broke the rim. So, in general it was really a lot of different stuff happening, but I think we are losing the first car, maybe some 13 seconds. So, Baja just starts, and so far so good, but already, you know, with some stuff happening. .

Baja Extremadura 2024, Stage 1 (Ultimate)

The Elvas special stage (89.43 km) was a truly difficult and hard test for the participants in the car and SSV categories. The average speed of the winner of this SS was less than 55 km/h! And many favorite crews could not avoid problems.

The first to suffer was the Portuguese João Ramos (Toyota Hilux T1+). He started successfully, was the fastest after the first third of the distance, but then ran into problems and lost almost ten minutes. João Ferreira (Mini JCW Rally Plus) had the advantage, but in the final 20 km of the special stage he lost at least two minutes.

The winner of the special stage and the first day of the race in the Ultimate category was the Portuguese Francisco Barreto (Toyota Hilux T1+), who was ahead of the Lithuanian Benediktas Vanagas (Toyota Hilux T1+) and compatriot João Ferreira (Mini JCW Rally Plus).

The Pole Michał Małuszyński (Mini JCW Rally Plus) and the Portuguese Henrique Silva (Mercedes Cattiva Proto X) probably faced serious problems.

Stage 1 (Ultimate, T1)*
1. Barreto/Duarte (Toyota)
2. Vanagas/Sikk (Toyota) +13.0
3. Ferreira/Palmeiro (Mini) +39.5
4. Garcia/Navarro (Mini) +1:52.1
5. Grajek/Goleniewski (Toyota) +3:29.7
* - provisional results

Stage 1, European Baja Cup (Ultimate, T1)*
1. Barreto/Duarte (Toyota)
2. Vanagas/Sikk (Toyota) +13.0
3. Ferreira/Palmeiro (Mini) +39.5
4. Ramos/Carvalho (Toyota) +9:47.0
* - provisional results

Bonus points after Day 1 (coef. 1.2)*
1. Barreto - 6
2. Vanagas - 4.8
3. Ferreira - 3.6
4. Ramos - 2.4
* - provisional

Joao Dias (PRT) #300, Santag Racing, G Rally OT3, Challenger group, European Baja Cup

🎤Hello everyone, end of the first day of the Extremadura baja, a complicated day, a very clean first phase, with some dust, then we entered a military field zone with a lot of mud, difficult navigation, many consecutive dangers, but we managed to make it here to the end, pleased with the performance and with what the team has been doing to ensure the car is in perfect condition.

João Filipe Miranda (PRT) #300, Santag Racing, G Rally OT3, Challenger group, European Baja Cup

We did a nice stage, I think it's first on general, first on T3. For our first race in OT3, for me it's amazing. Now we are in technical zone and I need to check the time before out. Very difficult stage, very tricky, a lot of mud. In military zone we have big holes, it's not easy for us. Thank you very much.

Baja Extremadura 2024, Stage 1 (Challenger)

A tense and hard battle throughout the entire distance - there was no main leader almost until the finish. Everything was decided at the final fragment of the special stage, when some of the participants lost several minutes.

Both Santag Racing Team crews, João Dias and Armindo Araújo, took revenge after a not too confident prologue - in SS1 they took the first two positions. For both, this was the first start on the new GRally OT3 prototypes (instead of the previous Can-Am Maverick X3). Another favorite from Portugal, Alexandre Pinto on Can=Am Maverick X3, finished third.

The most interesting thing is that all three leaders of the Challenger category, following the results of the first special stage, took the first three positions in the overall race standings - the best representative of the Ultimate category finished fourth.

Stage 1 (Challenger, T3)*
1. Dias/Miranda (GRally)
2. Araújo/Ré (GRally) +1:03.1
3. Pinto/Oliveira (Can-Am) +1:18.9
4. Carneiro/Floene (GRally) +3:59.0
5. Carvalho/Martins (Can-Am) +4:14.4
* - provisional results

Stage 1, European Baja Cup (Challenger, T3)*
1. Dias/Miranda (GRally)
2. Araújo/Ré (GRally) +1:03.1
3. Pinto/Oliveira (Can-Am) +1:18.9
4. Carneiro/Floene (GRally) +3:59.0
5. Kuś/Pasek (GRally) +4:32.2
* - provisional results

Bonus points after Day 1 (coef. 1.2)*
1. Dias - 6
2. Araújo - 4.8
3. Pinto - 3.6
4. Carneiro - 2.4
5. Kuś/Pasek - 1.2
* - provisional

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

We have just finished the first proper day of Extremadura here. We started well with the Prologue, we finished second. We didn't take any risk, it was very slippery, we were the first car on the track. And after in the stage we were the fourth car to start the stage. And the stage was pretty ok, we didn't take any risk because we can't win anything today and we can't lose everything. So yeah, we just started the stage with very calm, trying not to push at all. And in the last part we lost a little bit in the military area, it was very rough terrain, a lot of decompressions, a lot of dips. And yeah, we lost a little bit to the T3s there, but it's what it is. Tomorrow is still a very long day and tomorrow it's the real race.

Baja Extremadura 2024, Stage 1 (SSV)

Pole Tomasz Białkowski (BRP Can-Am XRS Turbo RR) won today's special stage and is ready to battle for his second Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura win in his category. Two years ago he won here in the T4 group classification on Polaris, and now he intends to repeat this success on BRP Can-Am.

His main rival is the Spaniard Fidel Castillo Ruiz - last year he became vice-champion of the FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas in group T4.

The most interesting situation in the fight for third position in the SSV standings is that the interval between third and fifth positions is only 3.9 seconds!

Stage 1 (SSV, T4)*
1. Białkowski/Baśkiewicz (BRP Can-Am)
2. Castillo/Mota (BRP Can-Am) +35.3
3. Guillermo/Aguado (Polaris) +1:38.0
4. Muñoz/Cámara (BRP Can-Am) +1:40.0
5. Farinha/Pita (BRP Can-Am) +1:41.9
* - provisional results

Stage 1, European Baja Cup (SSV, T4)*
1. Białkowski/Baśkiewicz (BRP Can-Am)
2. Castillo/Mota (BRP Can-Am) +35.3
3. Farinha/Pita (BRP Can-Am) +1:41.9
4. Buller/Jordao (Yamaha) +3:15.4
5. Prat/Olivera (Yamaha) +3:43.5
* - provisional results

Bonus points after Day 1 (coef. 1.0)*
1. Białkowski - 5
2. Castillo - 4
3. Farinha - 3
4. Buller - 2
5. Prat - 1
* - provisional

Image: land4travel.com

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

🎤So, we finished the first day, we are really happy, we are second overall, we are here racing with the new OT3 and the car is really fantastic. We are with Sentag and the G-Rally team and we did a very good first day. Tomorrow something will change, we know that because the conditions will change and maybe we will lose some time, but ok. Today was a big challenge, driving in the military zone with the big holes, a lot of mud, really difficult for us, really difficult for our cars, but we did a good job. So, thank you very much for all your support. Thank you.

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

Hi, we've just finished day one. The stage today was really good in the SSV class, the Yamaha 1000R. We got a lot of mud in the army works, there was a lot of holes and rough, but it suited the car well. I think we've done a good job. We got a lot of traffic, we caught some cars and there was a lot of dust. You can see from the car behind how much mud there was, but all in all I think it wasn't too bad. We've a good building block for tomorrow and we look forward to having a good day on day two. We're at the service park, we've only three hours to fix the car after the stage today. The guys are working hard to prepare the car for tomorrow, they're changing the brakes. It looks like there's a drive shaft to be replaced, so they'll check all the car and make sure it's good to go for tomorrow.

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

Well, we finished the stage this afternoon, for us it was really bad, I didn't have the good speed and there was a lot of mud and we had a windscreen and it was totally with mud and very difficult to see, very difficult to clean it, so it's strange, really strange but it was a short stage, tomorrow we have 300km more so we will see tomorrow but today it was a bad day, I don't know, I will try to understand later, we will try to push tomorrow.

The military zone was very tricky, until there we were good but there inside was the problem because it was totally destroyed with water and it was splashed with mud, it was very difficult to see and to drive so we take care there because also it was very easy to blow the car there inside so we take care about that and that's it, finally we were thinking only to finish in one piece.

Miquel Prat & Dani Oliveras (ESP) Yamaha YXZ1000R, SSV group, European Cup

Maria Luis Gameiro (PRT) #208 MINI JCW Rally Plus, Ultimate group

🎤So here we are in a big mini family, we have two different cars, two generations of cars, a T1 Plus and a T1. So this one is smaller, with smaller wheels and with that kind of shape, and that shape is a little more aggressive and more racing maybe, this one is from that car, a T1 Plus, as you can see with the bigger wheels and a kind of different performance, of course the mini family, the drivers, the top ones for sure, they drive the T1 Plus, they are very good cars, those were very good cars as well,

I drove one like that last year, I was really very happy and I had a lot of fun, I'm very happy to have the chance to drive this one this year, I'm a rookie in this kind of cars, so I'm having fun and I think they are very good cars as you can see, both of them are here with any problem, with no problem from mechanics, so we both finished and we are very happy with the performance. It was a very tough day because I had a buggy ahead of me and I catch him at 4km and he had no sentinel and I did all the racing he does, so it wasn't easy to do so many kilometers on the dash, but the big deal is that I did it with success!

Baja Extremadura 2024, Stage 1 (Stock)

Despite the notable dominance of Ultimate, Challenger and SSV vehicles, there are still many drivers and teams that run their own programs with Stock vehicles (production cars in the T2 group).

One such enthusiast in this race was Portugal's Fernando Manuel Barreiros - his Isuzu D-Max was the only Stock category car in the international standings at the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura. Last year he spent almost a full season in the FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas and was the series vice-champion in Group T2 (winning two rounds).

The slow and twisting track makes serious demands on the reliability of the standard car (engine, gearbox, suspension) and on the piloting skills of the driver. After the first day, Barreiros finished 35th in the overall international race standings (out of 41 classified crews).

Fernando Manuel Barreiros is competing in the FIA European Bajas Cup again this year and today has already earned his first points in the Stock category - 5 bonus points for the first day of the race.

Rui Carneiro (PRT) #306, G Rally OT3, Challenger group, European Cup

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

BEX24_RESULTS_SS1.pdf

BEX24_START LIST FOR LEG 2 (TC-1E).pdf

Robert Przybyłovski (POL) 30, KTM 450

🎤Hello. Today is one of those days that I would like to forget quickly. I think a poorly prepared motorcycle and improperly chosen tire caused me to have very big problems today. Right at the beginning of the section, on a straight road, I had quite strong dirt. Fortunately, nothing serious happened to me there. I managed to complete the section. However, not without problems. The motorcycle was a bit misaligned, I was a bit misaligned, so it felt like I was riding very slowly. My hand was hurting.

But in the end, I completed the section. I didn't make many navigational mistakes because I was driving slowly. So I had time to control the situation. That's how it looks. In all this misfortune, there was a bit of sweetness. What more can I say? The doctor patched me up, put five pieces on my hand. The boys from the team fixed my motorcycle. They prepared it, put it aside in the parking area. So tomorrow, we have the last section ahead of us. I changed the tire. We'll see how it goes. But I hope it will be better. Because today, this ride was a nightmare for me. It felt like I was sitting on a motorcycle for the first time. And I couldn't handle it at all. So I'm counting on a better day tomorrow. See you. Take care. Bye.