Pordenone, March 5, 2025. The appointment with the 15th Italian Baja di Primavera is approaching, the fifth consecutive time in the Artugna Race format (March 21/22), “the torrent that isn’t there”, a furrow of stones and bushes close to the Pordenone foothills with Budoia embraced by Aviano and Polcenigo. These three municipalities will be the theater of the 2025 race characterized by compact dirt roads, fast straight stretches and hairpin bends on country roads, with some narrow and impervious passages on the fords of an Artugna that will perhaps have some treacherous puddles, it will depend on the weather in the coming weeks.
All buttoned up at the Fuoristrada Club 4x4 Pordenone on the current registrations, there is time until Monday 17 and the unwritten rule of silence applies after having greeted with sympathy the first local service of Enrico Zille at the wheel of a Suzuki Grand Vitara T2. For the moment, all we have to do is revisit recent history, discovering that in two years out of four the success at the Primavera has opened the doors to the conquest of the championship, both for cross country rally vehicles and for side by sides.
In 2021, a post-pandemic race with special guests - the Czech Miroslav Zapletal on a Ford F150 Evo and the Spaniard Carlos Checa on a Can Am Maverick - Sergio Galletti won on a Toyota Hilux Overdrive, who then became Italian champion, and Amerigo Ventura on a Quaddy Yamaha, second at the end of the season behind Elvis Borsoi, so far the only one to be able to boast the double crown since in 2017 he took the Ccr one.
In 2022, Andrea Alfano's success at Artugna on Nissan Pathfinder and Alfio Bordonaro's retirement on Suzuki Grand Vitara T2 who then decided to switch to the T1 prototype to be able to grab his first overall title with a margin of only 7 points over Alessandro Trivini Bellini, always faithful to his Mitsubishi Pajero and first among the series derivatives. Absolute domination by Ventura with the Quaddy Yamaha, ahead of all rivals with light quadricycles at Artugna and in the other five stages of the calendar.
In 2023, Manuele Mengozzi's first win at Primavera on Toyota Hilux Overdrive, but the championship is still the prerogative of Bordonaro, while Ventura repeats the double feat of the previous year and there is the surprise of Andrea Tomasini from Pordenone third at Artugna and second in the overall championship Ssv.
In 2024, Mengozzi repeated his success at Primavera with the Hilux, starting the season with a bang that led him to win his first cross country baja championship, while among the Ssvs there was a duel between the Can Am Mavericks of Andrea Castagnera and Federico Buttò, first and second at Artugna with positions reversed at the end of the season, rewarding the smile of the dentist Buttò.
Italian Baja press office
photo Massimo Zuin
