This weekend the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura was held, the first event of the European Off-Road Cup, which ended with the triumph of the Polish duo Michal Mulusznynski/Lukasz Kurzeja (Mini JCW Rallye), who beat Félix Dieguez/Jose Luis Lamela (Toyota Hilux Overdrive) with PRK Sport Rally Team duo Pedro Dias da Silva/Victor Jesus (Volkswagen Amarok) finishing on the podium.
Scoring for the European championships in both cars and motorcycles and quads, the Spanish event that is held closer to Portugal, told how it has been traditional with a significant Portuguese participation. The Portuguese were in the spotlight during the race, but the toughness of the race meant that they had their ‘victims’ with João Ferreira/David Monteiro (Mini JCW Rallye), and were second in the prologue, but not capitalizing on the good performance, since an accident – a half roll – in SS2 caused them to lose around 18 minutes and drop a lot in the standings.
They recovered up to the sixth final position, which does not reflect the pace they showed, as they won the SS3 and SS4 with a big advance. The duo that comfortably leads the championship, the result of two triumphs in the Baja TT Montes Alentejanos and in the Baja TT ACP, continues to show great competitiveness, this time with bad luck in between.
Very unlucky were also Edgar Condenso/Carlos Silva (Ford MO EXR05 Proto). They finished the second day of the race in the general position, they were discussing the victory in the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura, they were, of course, the best Portuguese structure in the race but they were unlucky, giving up on the last day of the race.
The triumph in the event went to Michal Mulusznynski/Lukasz Kurzeja (Mini JCW Rallye), who finished with an 11m38.9s lead over Félix Dieguez/Jose Luis Lamela (Toyota Hilux Overdrive). The Poles were only sixth in qualifying, but at the end of SS2 they were already leading 3m35.0s ahead of Edgar Condenso/Carlos Silva (Ford MO EXR05 Proto) and they were even more comfortable when they got in the way.
Thus, who finished in third place were Pedro Dias da Silva/Victor Jesus (Volkswagen Amarok), a good result in his debut in the Bajas European Cup.
Fourth place for Santiago Freixas/Marc Sola (Can Am Maverick X3), who won T3 (SSV) curiously ahead of T4 winners Tomasz Bialkowski/Darius Baskiewicz (Polaris RZR Pro XP). João Ferreira/David Monteiro (Mini JCW Rallye), still managed to reach the final sixth place, ahead of Daniel Alonso/Adrian Perez Fernandez (Ford Ranger) and
Santiago Colomer/Miguel Pedrero (Ford Ranger) with Amerigo Ventura/Mirko Brun (Yamaha YXZ 1000 R) seconds from T4 and Bernd Hofmann/Antonio Benitez (Can Am Maverick X3) seconds from T3 to close the top 10 overall.
After the problems of the first day, Alexandre Franco/Rui Franco Mercedes Benz V 230 TD returned to finish the race in 20th place, as did Fernando Barreiros/Sergio Cerveira (Isuzu D-MAX), who only had to return to win the T2.
There were several Portuguese teams along the way, in addition to Edgar Condenso / Carlos Silva (Ford MO EXR05 Proto), also did not finish the competition Felipe Nascimento / João Serôdio (PKR Sport 002) who finished the first day in ninth overall, third of the T3 .
From Cattiva Sport, Henrique Silva/Henrique Damásio (Mini Cattiva Proto T1) were on the way in SS2 with mechanical problems, as did Filipe Carvalho/Maria Carvalho (Can Am Maverick X3) who also retired in SS2 with a malfunction. José Faria/José Janela (Ford Ranger) also retired before SS3.
Michael Braun/Ivo Santos (Porsche Cayenne) won the Open Class, which they started by leading in front of José Faria/josé Janela (Ford Ranger), easily keeping the lead until the end.
