João Ferreira teamed up with navigator Filipe Palmeiro to earn a comfortable career third victory in Portugal’s Baja Portalegre 500, round six of the FIA World Baja Cup and the final round of the FIA European Baja Cup.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver dominated the event, winning the Prologue and the three demanding off-road stages that constituted the challenging route for the 39th running of the event through the Alentejo region of eastern Portugal.

A winning margin of 10min 18.4sec over the SSV category-winning Luís Cidade and Valter Cardoso in their South Racing Can-Am Maverick R also enabled Ferreira to seal maximum points in the Ultimate class and the FIA European Baja Cup.

Ferreira said: “We won the race by more than 10 minutes. That’s a proper one. Friday was dry, this morning was dry and the last stage was completely wet. It was very difficult to drive these big cars between the trees and in the mud. Thanks to Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa and SVR, the car was perfect all weekend. We won all the stages. I couldn’t be happier.”

Daniel Silva and Gonçalo Magalhães rounded off the podium places in their Taurus T3 Max and also topped the standings in the Challenger category. With neither Cidade nor Silva registered for either of the FIA Baja cups, fifth-placed Mitchel van den Brinck and Bart van Heun claimed maximum points in the FIA World Baja Cup and their SSV class in a South Racing Can-Am Maverick R.

They missed out on fourth overall to Luís Portela Morais and Carlos Mendes (Polaris) by a mere one-tenth of a second, but Van den Brinck was able to unofficially wrap up the FIA World Baja Cup’s Junior title and extend his lead over Quaddy Racing rival Amerigo Ventura and the absent Hamed Al-Wahaibi and Paul Severn in the FIA World Baja Cup’s SSV title race.

The Dutch crew finished over two minutes ahead of the Portuguese duo of Francisco Barreto and Carlos Silva, who were second in the FIA World Cup standings and picked up valuable Ultimate category points in their Toyota Hilux Overdrive.

Sergei Remennik and Alexsey Ignatov came home in seventh and third of the FIA World Baja Cup finishers. They also collected maximum points in the Challenger category in a Taurus Evo Max and now head to the final two rounds in the Middle East locked in a fight with Khalid Al-Jafla and Andrei Rudnitski for the World Challenger title.

The Italian duo of Eugenio Amos and Paulo Ceci were 12th overall, fourth of the registered FIA World Baja Cup crews and second in the SSVs.

The event attracted a final starting list of 57 vehicles with 14 crews in the Ultimate section, 17 in Challenger, 25 in SSV and one in Stock.

Action got underway with a Prologue of 5.02km at Herdade das Coutadas. This determined the starting order for the opening 70.99km stage from Ponte de Sor to Crato.

Ferreira stopped the clocks in 3min 57sec to win the Prologue by 11.4 seconds and opted to start the first stage from first on the road. Gonçalo Guerreiro, Miguel Barbosa and Ricardo Porém were his closest challengers.

The former European champion topped the times on the opening stage as well to take an early lead of 1min 00.07sec over SSV front-runner Guerreiro. Challenger leader Daniel Silva slotted into third. The varied special featured numerous water crossings and tracks through forests, fields and hilly terrain.

José Rogeira, Ricardo Porém, Miguel Barbosa, Tiago Reis and Lino Carapera were among the driver who failed to finish the stage. Barbosa suffered fuel pump issues one kilometre from the stage finish and Reis had an accident.

Saturday’s two selective sections were modified to run for 179.83km and 195.18km along narrow rural Portuguese tracks between Ponte de Sor and Portalegre and Gafete and Portalegre.

Ferreira extended his lead to 4min 30.7sec with the fastest time in the opener with João Ramos moving up to second overall ahead of Guerreiro, Silva and Cidade. Van Den Brinck topped the FIA World Cup standings and the registered SSV drivers from the leading registered Challenger driver Remennik.

“It was super slippery,” said Ferreira. “We were the first car on the road and didn’t want to make any mistakes. We were very conservative. We won the stage and made a good margin.”

Edgar Reis, Amerigo Ventura and João Monteiro all hit trouble on the first of Saturday’s specials and the solitary Stock entry for Fernando Barreiros and Jose Sa Pires (Isuzu) was also sidelined and retired.

Another win on the longer second special sealed a third event victory for Ferreira. But Ramos retired his Toyota from second position and both Gonçalo and Tiago Guerreiro failed to finish in their Polaris RZR Pro Rs.

The final stage also cost Portugal’s Ricardo Porém (Kaizen S1) and Hungary’s Lőrinc Mészáros (G Rally Team OT3) their places in the event. The retirement proved particularly costly for Mészáros who came into the weekend with an outside chance of winning the European Challenger title.

Four FIA European Baja Cup crews were classified in 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th overall. The Hungarian duo of Balázs and Gabriella Molnár topped the SSV standings with Afonso Oliveira and Fábio Belo picking up points for second and Sean Haran and Martin Hales finishing third in a pair of Polaris RZR Pro Rs. Molnár passed Oliveira near the finish line but couldn’t prevent the Portuguese Santag Racing driver from adding the European SSV title to the Junior award he had already confirmed (subject to FIA confirmation).

Oliveira said: “We achieved the goal, which was to be the European champions of T4. It was difficult but would not have been possible without the help of my great navigator and a friend I have known for eight years. We had some problems and did the entire last special without front-wheel drive. We had only rear-wheel drive in the rain and mud but we made it.”

Poland’s Wlodzimierz Grajek and Michal Goleniewski were 16th in their Toyota Hilux and second in the FIA European Baja Cup’s Ultimate section behind Ferreira and Palmeiro.

The result enabled Grajek and Goleniewski to seal the European Ultimate Drivers’ and Navigators’ titles and finish second behind Bartholmiej Wajzer and Ernest Gorecki in the overall classification (subject to FIA confirmation) after Miguel Angel Valero and Carlos Ruiz finished down in 29th overall. Valero’s and Ruiz’s consolation was confirmation of the European Challenger titles.

The triumphant Wajzer did not take part in Portugal but had already won the Stock, Master and overall European titles.

Runner-up Goleniewski said: “This was my first start in this rally, so I am so happy we finished. We had a bit of an adventure on the last special because our front left spring broke. We couldn’t go fast enough but we knew we had to reach the finish line. The second stage had more holes and those were really brain-busting holes!”

Magdalena Zając and Błażek Czekan were classified in 21st and third in the European Ultimate section. Ventura (Yamaha) and his navigator Erika Mingozzi rounded off the registered finishers in 35th overall and fifth in the FIA World Baja Cup.

Action resumes in the FIA World Baja Cup at the Qatar International Baja on November 6th-8th.

39th Baja Portalegre 500 – final result:

1. João Ferreira (POR)/Filipe Palmeiro (POR) Toyota Hilux Evo                                 5hr 37min 07.2sec+

2. Luís Cidade (POR)/Valter Cardoso (POR) Can-Am Maverick R                              5hr 47min 25.6sec

3. Daniel Silva (POR)/Gonçalo Magalhães (POR) Taurus T3 Max                              5hr 49min 17.3sec

4. Luís Portela Morais (POR)/Carlos Mendes (POR) Polaris RZR Pro R                     5hr 50min 45.8sec

5. Mitchel Van Den Brinck (NED)/Bart van Heun (NED) Can-Am Maverick R         5hr 50min 45.9sec*

6. Francisco Barreto (POR)/Carlos Silva (POR) Toyota Hilux Evo                               5hr 52min 49.8sec*

7. Sergei Remennik (UAE)/Aleksey Ignatov (KGZ) Taurus Evo Max                          5hr 53min 29.7sec*

8. Alexandre Ré (POR)/Pedro Ré (POR) Can-Am Maverick R                                     5hr 56min 23.4sec

9. Filipe Cameirinha (POR)/Jérémy Dubois (FRA) Can-Am Maverick R                    6hr 00min 30.3sec

10. Paulo Rodrigues (POR)/Fausto Mota (POR) Can-Am Maverick R                       6hr 00min 39.2sec

11. Herlander Araújo (POR)/Tiago Magalhães (POR) Polaris RZR Pro R                  6hr 03min 26.2sec

12. Eugenio Amos (ITA)/Paolo Ceci (ITA) Can-Am Maverick R                                   6hr 03min 56.0sec*

13. Filipe Lopes (POR)/Gonçalo Reis (POR) Can-Am Maverick R                               6hr 06min 23.5sec

14. Luís Carneiro (POR)/Hugo Magalhães (POR) Can-Am Maverick X3                   6hr 09min 06.3sec

15. Balázs Molnár (HUN)/Gabriella Molnár (HUN) Can-Am Maverick R                  6hr 11min 19.7sec+

16. Wlodzimierz Grajek (POL)/Michal Goleniewski (POL) Toyota Hilux                   6hr 12min 25.4sec+

17. Afonso Oliveira (POR)/Fábio Belo (POR) Polaris RZR Pro R                                  6hr 12min 27.8sec+

18. Sean Haran (GBR)/Martin Hales (GBR) Polaris RXR Pro R                                    6hr 14min 39.5sec+

19. César Sequeira (POR)/Filipe Sequiera (POR) Mercedes 350 SLC Coupe           6hr 16min 05.6sec

20. João Franco (POR)/Ricardo Batista (POR) Mini Paceman                                    6hr 17min 21.7sec

21. Magdalena Zając (POL)/Błażek Czekan (POL) Toyota Hilux                                 6hr 19min 34.4sec+

22. Hugo Raposo (POR)/Rafael Lutas (POR) Nissan Proto                                          6hr 20min 01.5sec

23. Vincent Vroninks (BEL)/Dave Berghmans (BEL) Red-Lined VK56                       6hr 22min 42.9sec

24. Amândio Alves (POR)/Nuno Sousa (POR) Kaizen S1                                             6hr 23min 40.9sec

25. Ricardo Santos (POR)/Robson Schuinka (BRA) Can-Am Maverick R                  6hr 30min 17.4sec

26. Henk Klaassen (NED)/Sasha Siripanyavuthi (THA) Taurus T3 Max                     6hr 31min 30.0sec

27. Hervé Crèvecouer (FRA)/Paul Duramé (FRA)   Polaris RZR Pro R                       6hr 37min 09.2sec

28. Nuno Faria (POR)/João Martinas (POR) Can-Am Maverick X3                            6hr 38min 33.1sec

29. Miguel Angel Valero (ESP)/Carlos Ruiz (ESP) VN Competition T34                    6hr 40min 59.9sec+

30. Pedro Ruivo (POR)/Filipe Rasteiro (POR) Can-Am Maverick X3                          6hr 41min 43.6sec

31. Rúben Rodrigues (POR)/Rui Paulo (POR) Can-Am Maverick R                            6hr 56min 31.3sec

32. José Rogeira (POR)/Paulo Marques (POR) Ford Ranger                                       7hr 36min 00.1sec

33. Edgar Condenso (POR)/Nuno Silva (POR) Ford MO EXR05 Proto                       7hr 36min 02.5sec

34. Kevin Haren (GBR)/Paul Severn (GBR) Polaris RZR Pro R                                     7hr 45min 26.3sec

35. Amerigo Ventura (ITA)/Erika Mingozzi (ITA) Yamaha YXZ 1000 R                      9hr 44min 35.6sec*

*denotes registered for FIA World Baja Cup

+denotes registered for FIA European Baja Cup

RETIREMENTS (registered drivers only)

Tiago Reis (POR)/David Monteiro (ESP) Taurus Evo Max                                           SS1+

Fernando Barreiros (POR)/Jose Sa Pies (POR) Isuzu D-Max                                       SS2*

Ricardo Porém (POR)/Henrique Damásio (POR) Kaizen S1                                        SS3*

Lőrinc Mészáros (HUN)/Albert Horn (HUN) G Rally Team OT3                                 SS3+