Cross Country – Aladzi/Gottschalk, World Baja Cup Round 4 Baja Poland 27th

2024 Columna Medica Baja Poland (August 23-25) – FIA World Baja Cup, Round 4/8

Overdrive Racing’s Yazid Alazi and Timo Gottschalk will field a 27-car field at the Columna Medica Baja Poland from August 23-25.

The FIA ​​section of the fourth round of the FIA ​​World Baja Cup featured 27 cars, 11 in the Ultimate category, nine in the Challenger category for lightweight prototype cross-country vehicles and seven in the SSV category.

Ultimate category cars dominated the three-day Baja race in Szczecin, northern Poland, but the South Racing Can-Am Challenger team of Fernando Alvarez and Javier Panseri will start the event with a 17-point lead in the Drivers’ and Co-Drivers’ Championships after the opening three rounds in Saudi Arabia, Greece and Spain.

The Overdrive Racing and South Racing Can-Am teams are currently tied in the team championship with 196 points.

The challenging terrain of the military test site in Drapsko Pomorskie generally favours the more powerful Ultimate category cars, unless extreme weather conditions are present. Al-Rajhi is second in the Drivers’ Championship and is currently 23 points ahead of Portugal’s João Ferreira in the Ultimate standings. Ferreira is seeded second and teams up with regular co-driver Filipe Palmeiro in the first of two X-Raid Mini JCW Rally Plus cars.

2023 winner Krzysztof Holovcic will once again team up with Lukas Kurzeja in a BMW X3 powered by FosfoPower, while last year’s runners-up Michal Malusinski and Julita Malusinski will be driving a second Mini. Holovcic has won the event a record nine times with three different manufacturers since 2010.

Overdrive Racing has another Toyota Hylux for local driver Martin Kaczmarski and Spanish navigator Armand Monleon, as well as an additional Toyota for the Polish trio of Wlodzmierz Grajek, Magdalena Viscount and Tomasz Baranowski.

Czech veteran Miroslav Zapletal drives a self-built Ford F-1250 Evo+, while compatriot Frantisek Brutovsky drives a similar Ford F-150, but is not registered for the FIA ​​World Baja Cup. Belgium’s Vincent Vroninks (Red-Lined Nissan) completes the Ultimate field.

Leader Martinez, 1st place in Challenger category

Four of the nine Challenger entries are registered for the FIA ​​World Baja Cup. Argentina’s Diego Martinez and Uruguayan assistant Sergio Lafuente currently hold a comfortable lead in the Challenger category, with Martinez also fourth overall in the Drivers’ Championship in his South Racing Can-Am Maverick.

His closest rival João Dias is not in Poland, but Spain’s Edouard Pons and Belgium’s Ghislain de Mévius are third in the rankings and will be pushing hard for points on their Past Racing Taurus T3 Max and G Rally Team OT3 respectively. They are currently 19 points behind Martinez in the title race.

Emirati Khalid Aljafla has also registered for the FIA ​​World Baja Cup, driving a Taurus T3 Max.

Austria’s Big Flip and Mark Mustermann did not register any points in the Can-Ams, nor did Portugal’s Alexandre Pinto (Can-Am) and the Arcane T3 duo of Britain’s Richard Axel and the Netherlands’ Hans Weiss.

FIA World Baja Cup Leader Alvarez, SSV Class 1st

Fernando Alvarez not only leads the overall drivers’ championship aboard his Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR, the Spaniard also holds a 26-point lead over Miguel Toril in the SSV title race.

Six of the seven SSV entrants are registered in the championship points, with Toril and his brother Alex driving a pair of Escuderia JMP Racing Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RRs alongside their respective co-drivers Rosa Romero and Pedro Lopez. Alex Toril is third in the points standings.

French veteran Claude Fournier is fourth in the title race, teaming with Serge Gounon in Can-Am, while Italy’s Amerigo Ventura (Yamaha) and Saudi Arabian driver Ibrahim Al-Muhanna (Can-Am) are also registered in the points. Pole rider Tomasz Bialkowski entered the event but is not registered in the championship.

A 6.77km prologue kicks off the competitive action on Friday (August 23) and determines the starting positions for the first of two special stages on Saturday, which will take place over the nearby military test site at Drawsko Pomorskie. The two special stages start in Konotop and cover 151km in the morning and afternoon, respectively.

The competitive action will be completed on Sunday in two stages of 26.27 km. The special starts in Slawoszewo and ends in Szczecin Zawadzkiego and is divided into two stages of 16.05 km and 10.22 km. The first stage ends in Wolczkowo and the second stage starts at the same place after neutralization. In total, the crews will cover 354.54 km of competitive riding.

2024 Columna Medica Baja Poland – Participant List:

Event Schedule