Portuguese riders filled all the podium places on the second round of the FIM Bajas World Cup with Bruno Santos (Husqvarna) dominating both days of the event to keep fellow countryman and last year’s winner David Megre (Kawasaki) at bay to claim victory. Veteran rider Pedro Bianchi Prata (Honda) showed great form to confirm the final spot on the podium and Sara Garcia (Yamaha) rode exceptionally to top the Women’s category and finish fourth overall. In the quad section, Abdulaziz Al-Shayban finished ahead of fellow Saudi rider Hani Al-Noumesi.
The opening six-kilometre Prologue stage carved a path through tracks around the urban area of Badajoz on the Portuguese border and was followed by the opening 89km special stage that started on dry and dusty terrain and finished in the mud of very broken military tracks. Navigation and speed control zones added to the difficulty and the results changed as a result with many riders discovering a multitude of penalties imposed by officials at the end of the day.
Junior rider Edgar Canet won the Prologue but failed to finish the opening day of Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura after a mechanical breakdown. Portuguese riders then began to dominate proceedings with three local riders finishing on the podium – Santos, Megre and Bianchi Prata.
Al-Shayban (Yamaha) won the opening stage in the quad category and finished ahead of Al-Noumesi and Haitham Al-Tuwaijri, who incurred a 3hr 30min penalty.
Saturday’s route included two special stages of 100km and 175km on well-used tracks. The leading riders maintained a good pace all day on a smoother course than the day before and Santos won SS2, finishing ahead of Megre and the Spaniard Josep Pedro Subirats.
The major loser from the second round of the FIM Bajas World Cup was the series-leading Emirati Mohammed Al-Balooshi, who finished 12th.
Garcia finished ahead of Joanna Modrzwska to win the Women’s category, Filip Grot topped the standings in Juniors and Bianchi Prata won the Veterans’ Trophy.
FIM Communications