The Spanish duo of Joan Roma and Alex Haro secured a 1min 36.4sec victory in the Hungarian Baja, the third round of the 2023 FIA European Baja Cup. But the Ford M-Sport Raptor crew were not eligible for the FIA event or championship points and second-placed João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro picked up maximum points in their X-Raid Mini JCW Rally Plus and duly extended their leads in the FIA European Baja Cup’s Drivers’ and Co-drivers’ Championships and the Ultimate category.

Roma said: “It was good. We enjoyed a lot with the car. The Hungarian Baja is always very bumpy, the weather was nice and a lot of public in the stages. We are happy. The car works well. We need some improvements. But this is the first race with the new car. It was a good test.”

Ferreira added: “We pushed the maximum we could. We didn’t have the pace to follow Nani (Roma). He was super-fast. For the European Cup it is not too bad but we really wanted to win the race. We have to keep working and try to catch the competition.”

The 21st running of the Várpalota-based three-day event featured 30 starters with 11 cars in the Ultimate class, six in Challenger for lightweight prototype cross-country machines, 12 in SSV and a sole entrant in the Stock section.

Competition was fought out over an 8.06km Prologue stage on Friday morning at Várpalota to determine the starting order and then two passes through a 119.66km stage that finished in Újmajor on Friday afternoon. The competitive action concluded with a third stage of 142.32km between Gyulafirátót and Várpalota on Saturday.

Two-time Dakar winner Roma continued his limited programme of events before embarking on the 2025 Dakar Rally with M-Sport Ford. The Spaniard lined up in a Ford Raptor entered by Ford M-Sport, although the car was entered with a 2025 specification after 1,000km of recent testing and was not eligible for the FIA standings. Roma broke his windscreen on the first stage but won stages two and three to complete a useful test session.

Ferreira headed into the weekend with a massive 47-point lead over Francisco Barreto in the Ultimate category and a 13-point cushion over a tying SSV-category leader Fidel Castillo Ruiz and Stock front-runner Fernando Barreiros in the overall Drivers’ Championship.

He had beaten Barreto to outright victory in the opening Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura round and finished seventh at round two in Italy. The Portuguese was quickest on the opening hot, fast and bumpy stage and finished behind Roma on the second run to trail by just 5.1 seconds at the night halt. Barreto was third on both specials and held second among the FIA European Baja Cup runners behind Ferreira.

Ferreira finished behind Roma again on the final stage to claim the ‘runner-up spot’ but he earned maximum points for topping the FIA entrants at the Hungarian Baja.

Barreto (Toyota Hilux) slipped back to initially finish sixth overall after incurring an 18-minute time penalty. But the matter went in front of the Stewards when it came to light that he had sustained a puncture, broken a brake disc and carried out repairs in a control zone. The crew were disqualified after being found in breach of Parc Fermé regulations.

Barreto’s demise lifted the Polish Toyota pairing of Wlodzimierz Grazek and Michal Goleniewski into second overall in the FIA European Baja Cup with the Belgian duo of Thijs Vincent and Tom de Leeuw finishing third in their Hilux.

The Polish duo of Tomasz Bialkowski and Dariusz Baśkiewicz delivered two solid stage performances on day one to hold fourth overall and top the SSV category. The Can-Am pilot began the last stage with a 10-minute lead over the British Polaris driver Paul Severn and his French co-driver Delphine Delfino. Bialkowski finished the event in fourth and claimed SSV honours to move into a three-way fight with Castillo Ruiz and Miguel Martinez in the championship.

Daniel Alonso guided his Past Racing Ford Ranger to fifth overall and Severn came home in seventh and second in the SSV category. Hungarian driver Pál Lónyai was sixth in a Porsche Macan.

Brazilian Otavio Leite Sousa was the highest-placed Challenger driver after day one in his Santag Racing G Rally Team OT3 on a day where all his rivals hit trouble. He and Portuguese co-driver Valter Cardosa maintained their form over the final morning to confirm eighth in the general classification and a comfortable victory in the Challenger section.

The British crew of Sean Haren and Martin Hales were ninth (third in SSV) and George Hales and Max Delfino rounded off the top 10 in their Polaris and finished fourth in the SSVs.

William Buller’s slim SSV title chance suffered a severe setback when he retired on SS1, while both Castillo Ruiz and Martinez lost a lot of time on day one, the former suffering three punctures. Castillo Ruiz eventually retired after a heavy crash but Martinez recovered to finish fifth in SSV and claimed points for second of the registered drivers.

Portugal’s João Dias came into the weekend lying fourth in the Drivers’ Championship and trying to defend a three-point lead over fellow countryman Alexandre Pinto in the Challenger section. The Santag Racing Can-Am driver had already won the Italian Baja outright from Pole Adam Kuś.

But Dias failed to finish the first stage, incurred time penalties and dropped back to second in the category and a lowly 24th overall. He recovered well on the final morning to finish 18th and picked up points for second of the registered drivers to extend his overall lead in the Challenger category.

Both Pinto and Pau Navarro settled into third and fourth in the category after collecting time penalties for stage two problems. But Pinto was not able to start the final stage and Navarro retired on SS3 to leave just two finishers in the Challenger section. The title-chasing Kuś retired his Akpol Racing G Rally Team OT3 on stage one and Miklós Trébitsch was also sidelined in his Bedu Pro X3.

Czech Frantisek Brutovsky tackled the event for the first time in 2018 and opted for a Ming Racing Sports Ford F150+ on this occasion after competing in the recent Raid Polski Safari. He was sidelined on the final stage after an accident. The Hungarian duo of Csucsu and Márk Mesterházi also retired their Yamaha YXZ 1000 R SS in SS3.

Barreiros continued his march towards the Stock title with victory in the category with Rui Antonio in an Isuzu D-Max. The Portuguese came home in 17th overall.

Turkey’s Yagiz Birinci rounded off the 19 finishers but earned points for third of the registered SSV drivers.

The fourth and penultimate round of the FIA European Baja Cup takes crews to Portugal for the Baja TT Sharish Reguengos de Monsaraz on September 19th-22nd.

21st Hungarian Baja – final result:

1. Joan Roma (ESP)/Alex Haro (ESP) Ford Raptor                                                                        4hr 02min 58.1sec

2 João Ferreira (PRT)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT) Mini JCW Rally Plus                                                   4hr 04min 34.5sec*

3. Wlodzimierz Grajek (POL)/Michal Goleniewski (POL) Toyota Hilux                                         4hr 26min 13.4sec*

4. Thijs Vincent (BEL)/Tom de Leeuw (BEL) Toyota Hilux                                                           4hr 29min 55.7sec

5. Tomasz Bialkowski (POL)/Dariusz Baśkiewicz (POL) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR            4hr 30min 17.5sec*

6. Daniel Alonso (ESP)/Candido Carrera (ESP) Ford Ranger                                                        4hr 44min 03.0sec*

7. Pál Lónyai (HUN)/György Tóth (HUN) LPR Porsche Macan                                                      4hr 44min 48.0sec

8. Paul Severn (GBR)/Delphine Delfino (FRA) Polaris RZR Pro R                                                  4hr 46min 08.2sec

9. Otavio Sousa Leite (BRA)/Valter Cardoso (PRT) G Rally Team OT3                                         4hr 50min 56.3sec*

10. Sean Haran (GBR)/Martin Hales (GBR) Polaris RZR Pro R                                                      4hr 52min 29.5sec

11. George Hales (FRA)/Max Delfino (FRA) Polaris RZR Pro R                                                    5hr 00min 06.0sec

12. Vincent Vroninks (BEL)/Dave Berghmans (BEL) Red-Lined Nissan Navara VK56                   5hr 04min 15.5sec

13. Miguel Prat Martinez (ESP)/Ion Del Cid Odriozola (ESP) Yamaha YXZ 1000 R SS                  5hr 19min 13.0sec*

14. Kevin Haran (GBR)/Hugo Gonçalves (PRT) Yamaha YXZ 1000 R SS                                      5hr 20min 02.8sec

15. András Lukács (HUN)/Zoltán Palotai (HUN) Yamaha YXZ 1000 R SS                                    5hr 46min 39.2sec

16. Graham Knight (FRA)/David Watson (FRA) Polaris RZR Pro R                                              5hr 52min 50.2sec

17. Christof Danner (AUT)/Herwig Reiger (AUT) Puch 320 G E55                                             5hr 17min 04.4sec

18. Fernando Barreiros (PRT)/Rui Antonio (PRT) Isuzu D-Max                                                 7hr 07min 41.6sec*

19. João Dias (PRT)/João Miranda (PRT) Can-Am Maverick X3                                                 7hr 23min 18.2sec*

20. Yagiz Birinci (TUR)/Evangelos Sotirchos (GRE) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR                7hr 42min 05.0sec*

*denotes registered for FIA European Baja Cup

RETIREMENTS

Fidel Castillo Ruiz (ESP)/Fausto Moto (PRT) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR

Sam Heyvaert (BEL)/Krzysztof Zolty (BEL) Nissan Pick-Up VK56

Frantisek Brutovsky (CZE)/Josef Radina (CZE) Ford F150+  

Alexandre Pinto (PRT)/Bernardo Oliveira (PRT) Can-Am Maverick X3

Pau Navarro (ESP)/Jan Rosa (ESP) G Rally Team OT3

Csucsu (HUN)/Márk Mesterházi (HUN) Yamaha YXZ 1000 R SS

Adam Kus (POL)/Marcin Pasek (POL) G Rally Team OT3

Miklós Trébitsch (HUN)/Sándor Trébitsch (HUN) Bedu Pro X3

William Buller (GBR)/Jorge Fernandez (PRT) Yamaha YXZ 1000 R SS

DSQ

Francisco Barreto (PRT)/Carlos Silva (PRT) Toyota Hilux