Entries will be officially closed today for the Italian Baja, the sixth act of the Fia World Cup for Cross Country Rallies.
The 24th edition organized by the Fuoristrada Club 4x4 Pordenone (June 14th-18th), only reserved to cars, seems to meet the expectations of participants, above all Italian crews, which are leading the race to a record number of entries. This confirms a changing in the specialty at National level, thanks to the news regarding the rules introduced by Aci Sport, especially the admittance of SSV. “Our heroes” will maybe be obliged to leave to foreign drivers the best positions in the overall rank, because of an evident disparity of vehicles at disposal.
Forecasts anyway are not so predicted this year and it is possible to look for glorious results inside of the four main groups: T1 prototypes; T2 standard vehicles; TH expired validations; TM “Side by Side Vehicles”. A new challenge is expected on the top, between Toyota Hilux Overdrive, driven by the Pole Aron Domzala and Martin Kaczmarski and the French Ronan Chabot, and the Mini All4 Racing of Mohammed Abu Issa, from Qatar, and the Pole Jacub Prygonski. The Russian Boris Gadasin and Andrey Novikov won’t certainly bide their time, with the powerful G-Force Bars. As for the T2, duel between the Toyota Landcruiser of the Saudi Yasir Seaidan and the Pole Tomasz Piec, outsider fro Qatar Adel Abdulla with his Nissan Patrol Y62, all Italian drivers with Suzuki Grand Vitara of the namesake Challenge.
Press conference. Saturday in Pordenone (at 11am, by palazzo Montereale Mantica) the official presentation of the Italian Baja 2017 with some extraordinary surprises.
Carlo Ragogna Italian Baja Press Office
