Defeated Prokop and Vasilyev. Triumph of the Pole (Mini X-Raid) who is going on even reinforcing in the FIA World Cup. Codecà and Borsoi K.O., the Italian victory is gained by Alfano. Ventura, leader in SxS.
Almost absolutely perfect. The second performance in Friuli played by Jakub Przygonski astonished both experts and audience during the three days of the Italian Baja, which celebrates its 25th anniversary. Triumph of the Pole driver with the Mini John Cooper Works Rally of the Orlen X-Raid Team in a time of 5:16’36’’, after leading also yesterday’s two Selective Sectors “San Lorenzo” (87,41 km each) respectively faced in 1:01’34’’ and 1:00’59’’.Behind him a Bohemian couple with Ford F-150 Evo, while the third position was reached by Martin Prokop (Mp-Sports Team) with a gap of 3’45’’4 from “Kuba” , anyway ahead on Miroslav Zapletal (homonymous Team) who suffered a gap of 11’32’’2.
A hard track, a cruel and selective race. Only first class drivers, the foreign experts of the official and private teams, have been able to avoid great mechanical problems and electrical troubles. No mercy for all the others, sector by sector they lost some vehicle’s part, trying to go further along the track, getting argue because of some reciprocal impoliteness while crossing the routes during the free navigation. This is the Italian Baja, the sixth stage of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies, which reinforced Przygonskie’s leadership as well as the ambitions of gaining the podium demonstrated by Prokop and Vladimir Vasilyev.
The Russian didn’t succeed in overtaking Zapletal on the final track with his Mini Cooper Countryman. The 10’’2 gap realized before the last “San Lorenzo” got even wider::24’’2 in a breathless final, as timekeepers gave a wrong classification which inverted the positions. The fourth place (with a gap of 11’56’’4 from “Kuba”) gained by the G-Energy driver, supported by the Gazprom Team, is anyway not so bad as for the World Cup, ranking. Fifth position seized by Boris Gadasin with his G-Force Bars, after a successfully performance on Friday at the Super Special Stage “Pasch” which gave the start to the race. The “Tzar” from Saint Petersburg, used year by year to face the Italian Baja, had to abandon his dream of a poker of victories because of some punctures and some obliged bath taken into the ford crossing, which compromised the cylinders; he anyway went on fighting for a satisfying result, as the ones he was used to get here in Friuli.
The first eighth competitors at the arrival line were all coming from abroad: the Russian Andrey Novikov (G-Force Bars), the Spanish Fernando Alvarez Castellano (Volkswagen Amarok) and the Ukraine Yuriy Protasov (Autolife Hellcat), who suffered more than one hour gap from the winner. Nine place in the Overall Ranking and first position in the Italian classification of the World Cup for the local driver Andrea Tomasini (Suzuki Grand Vitara), who couldn’t believe in his result after a hard weekend which wasn’t very clement with his challengers. Lorenzo Codecà, his Suzuki Team companion, kept the lead until the penultimate sector, when the engine of his Vitara 3.6 stopped roaring and obliged him to quit the race towed by the assistance service. Even a worst result for the champion in charge Elvis Borsoi: he ended the first Leg with the gearbox lever in his hand, the second one with a K.O. engine. Frustrating results also for Eugenio Amos and Federico Crozzolo because of the insidious stones which seriously endangered and ruined their vehicles.
