The day’s first stage of the Baja Portalegre 500 was a difficult one for drivers, with several of them falling behind, or even withdrawing, as it was the case with the National Champion and first leader of the race, Miguel Barbosa, Nuno Matos or the Brazilian Reinaldo Varela.
After the SS2 200 km the Polish Krzysztof Holowczyc (Mini All4 Racing) is the new leader, with his young compatriot Martin Kaczmarski, also in Mini, over two minutes behind. The third spot is held by Boris Gadasin (G-Force Proto), a quarter of a second behind Kaczmarski, and 2m26s from the top.
Gadasin, who might depart Portalegre with the World title, also faced some problems along the way, but these were not enough to stop him. “We didn’t take any risks. When we saw Barbosa stopped we eased of a bit. After that we got back to our pace, but it was a hard stage, particularly demanding for the breaks. There were several withdraws and we also had problems with the central differential of the car. Fortunately, it was nothing much,” said Holowczyc.
Miguel Barbosa ended the race by kilometre 27, after crossing a water way. The Mitsubishi Racing Lancer started to fail due to the water which got into the engine. Nuno Matos also stopped after 125 km with transmission problems on the Opel Mokka Proto, making Pedro Grancha the best home driver, in fourth. Meanwhile, Reinaldo Varela had problems with the Toyota Overdrive alternator.
As for the T2 class, Américo Santos leads the pack, but Marcos Maraes is the best as far as the World title fight is concerned. However, Alexander Baranenko is still in a position to get the crown, while Rómulo Branco had problems and is far behind.
The day’s first stage of the Baja Portalegre 500 was a difficult one for drivers, with several of them falling behind, or even withdrawing, as it was the case with the National Champion and first leader of the race, Miguel Barbosa, Nuno Matos or the Brazilian Reinaldo Varela.
After the SS2 200 km the Polish Krzysztof Holowczyc (Mini All4 Racing) is the new leader, with his young compatriot Martin Kaczmarski, also in Mini, over two minutes behind. The third spot is held by Boris Gadasin (G-Force Proto), a quarter of a second behind Kaczmarski, and 2m26s from the top.
Gadasin, who might depart Portalegre with the World title, also faced some problems along the way, but these were not enough to stop him. “We didn’t take any risks. When we saw Barbosa stopped we eased of a bit. After that we got back to our pace, but it was a hard stage, particularly demanding for the breaks. There were several withdraws and we also had problems with the central differential of the car. Fortunately, it was nothing much,” said Holowczyc.
Miguel Barbosa ended the race by kilometre 27, after crossing a water way. The Mitsubishi Racing Lancer started to fail due to the water which got into the engine. Nuno Matos also stopped after 125 km with transmission problems on the Opel Mokka Proto, making Pedro Grancha the best home driver, in fourth. Meanwhile, Reinaldo Varela had problems with the Toyota Overdrive alternator.
As for the T2 class, Américo Santos leads the pack, but Marcos Maraes is the best as far as the World title fight is concerned. However, Alexander Baranenko is still in a position to get the crown, while Rómulo Branco had problems and is far behind.