Less than two weeks to the world off-road race on the banks of Meduna, Cosa and Tagliamento (25/28 June). Entries arrive abundantly at the secretariat of the organizing committee and everything suggests that this year the fateful threshold of 100 competitors will be exceeded, including cars, motorcycles, quads and trucks
A full-blown success, continuing the general economic crisis, which is explained by three factors: foreign specialists still have important sponsors behind them; the change of date (from March to June) allowed the recovery of worn out vehicles in the Dakar (January); the race organized by the Off-road Club 4x4 Pordenone boasts one of the best FIA report cards at an absolute level.
Global challenge with 23 nations represented, because there are Russians and Kazakhs, Latvians and Lithuanians, Arabs from Qatar, the Emirates and Jordan, Europeans from all over and South Americans from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru. "The Italian Baja - underlines a note from the organizers - is not just competition, but also a great opportunity for meeting and friendship between passionate sportsmen". An ideal setting to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Franco Picco, the Italian hero at the Dakar, in advance. The centaur from Vicenza has put together a total of 24 participations in the largest race in the world, counting the African challenges on motorcycles (second in 88 and 89), those in cars, work in assistance and again on two wheels experimenting also the modern version in South America, regardless of an identity card that marks the goal of twelve decades on 4 October 2015. In 1993 he was one of the thirteen competitors of the first Italian Baja, won by his great rival Edi Orioli, but Picco went “to peak” with the broken engine of a Suzuki Vitara. Now he returns to Pordenone driving a Can-Am 800 quad, his debut on four clawed wheels thinking about the 2016 Dakar.
Italian Baja Press Office Carlo Ragogna
