- Second position for the Russian Vasilyev ahead on the Czech Prokop
- Codecà (Suzuki) best fifth place and first in the Italian rank
This time the Italian Baja has outdone itself as for the selection of participants, decimated through the over 400 km of Selective Sections faced from Friday to Sunday along the Meduna, Cosa and Tagliamento riverbeds. The Pordenone Fair was reached just by few survivers after a terrific ride on four wheels through holes, fords, bushes, mud and the ill-famed whoops, that’s to say little jumps created by floods.
Considering the situation, it is not so surprising if victory has been gained by a couple of gauchos, the Argentinian Orlando Terranova and Ronnie Graue with Mini John Cooper Works of the X-Raid team. After Saturday’s race, when his team companion Jakub Przygonski passed him the baton and quit the track after losing a wheel on the first long “Barbeano” section, Terranova already increased the advantage, keeping away the Russian Vladimir Vasilyev with Toyota Hilux and Andrey Novikov with G-Force Bars, while Martin Prokop with his Ford Raptor suffered a short delay because of a power decreasing. The race yesterday offered marathon emotions along the “Gradisca” Selective Section (80 km), repeated twice without stop for the mechanical assistance at the Pordenone Fair, but with a planned break in Spilimbergo to promote the “mosaic town”. The roar of Vasilyev resounded along the first lap, faced in a time of 1:01’20’’, with a 37’’ recover from the Argentinian (still at the lead thanks of 1’15’’ gap) while a broken engine caused to Novikov the interruption of the race and Prokop reached the third position. During the second lap Terranova didn’t choose any controlling strategy, on the contrary he pushed to get the super time of 58’57’’, also to demonstrate that even Przygonski wouldn’t be able to win the challenge. Vasilyev in 2’47” and Prokop in 5’29’’, got rispectively the second and third position of the podium, with a gap of 4’02’’ and 18’56’’, avoiding seriuos damages in a World Cup where nothing can be expected. Remarkable also the improving of T3 tubulars, confirmed by the fourth place seized by Fedor Vorobyev with Can Am Maverick, even if with a gap of 51’47’’ from the top.
Italian Championship signed by the failure of too many protagonists, but with the fifth position of the overall rank conquered by Lorenzo Codecà with his Suzuki Grand Vitara 3.6 V6 by Emmetre Racing, for the first time such a high position gained at the Italian Baja, also thanks to his navigator from Pordenone Mauro Toffoli. One by one, Elvis Borsoi (Mini All One), Claudio Petrucci (Isuzu D-Max) and Sergio Galletti (Toyota Hilux) had to quit the race because of mechanical problems. A bitter morning yesterday for Amerigo Ventura and his Quaddy Yamaha, whose engine was k.o. after the high performance on the first Leg. An accident on the track was suffered by Margherita Lops with Isuzu D-Max. Second as for the Italian classification and eigth in the overall rank, Michele Cinotto with the only Polariz Razor in the race got a positive result but not so good as the one of the Spanish Santi Navarro with Can Am (sixth), rival of FIA T3 class.
