Cross-Nation – Al-Rajhi/Gottschalk head 27-car entry for World Baja Cup rd 4 Baja Poland

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

Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk head a 27-car entry for Columna Medica Baja Poland, which takes place on August Twenty third-Twenty fifth.  

The FIA part of the entry checklist for the fourth spherical of the FIA World Baja Cup featured 27 vehicles with 11 within the Final class, 9 working within the Challenger part for light-weight prototype cross-country machines and 7 entered within the SSV class. 

Whereas Final class vehicles dominate the higher reaches of the entry for the three-day Szczecin-based Baja in northern Poland, the South Racing Can-Am Challenger crew of Fernando Alvarez and Xavier Panseri will begin the occasion with a lead of 17 factors within the Drivers’ and Co-drivers’ Championships after the opening three rounds in Saudi Arabia, Greece and Spain. 

Overdrive Racing and the South Racing Can-Am Crew are at present tied on 196 factors apiece within the Groups’ Championship. 

The demanding terrain of the navy proving ranges at Drawsko Pomorskie usually favours the extra highly effective Final class vehicles until there are excessive climate circumstances. Al-Rajhi holds second place within the Drivers’ Championship and is at present 23 factors forward of Portugal’s João Ferreira within the Final standings. Ferreira is the second seed and groups up with common co-driver Filipe Palmeiro within the first of two X-Raid Mini JCW Rally Plus machines. 

The 2023 winner Krzysztof Holowczyc is once more partnered by Lukasz Kurzeja to deal with the occasion in his personal FosfoPower-backed BMW X3, whereas final 12 months’s runner-up Michal Maluszyński and Julita Maluszyńska crew the second of the Minis. Holowczyc has now gained the occasion on a staggering 9 events with three producers since 2010.

Overdrive Racing fields one other Toyota Hilux for native driver Martin Kaczmarski and Spanish navigator Armand Monleón and there are extra Toyotas for the Polish trio of Wlodzimierz Grajek, Magdalena Zajac and Tomasz Baranowski. 

Czech veteran Miroslav Zapletal drives his self-built Ford F-1250 Evo+ and fellow countryman Frantisek Brutovsky wheels out the same Ford F-150 however just isn’t registered for the FIA World Baja Cup. Belgian Vincent Vroninks (Crimson-Lined Nissan) completes the Final subject.

Chief Martinez tops Challenger class

4 of the 9 Challenger entrants are registered for the FIA World Baja Cup. Argentina’s Diego Martinez and his Uruguayan co-driver Sergio Lafuente at present have a cushty lead within the Challenger class and Martinez can also be fourth within the total Drivers’ Championship in his South Racing Can-Am Maverick.

His nearest challenger João Dias just isn’t current in Poland however Spaniard Edouard Pons and Belgian Ghislain de Mévius are tied for third within the rankings and can be pushing laborious for factors of their respective Previous Racing Taurus T3 Max and G Rally Crew OT3. They at present path Martinez by 19 factors within the title race.

Emirati Khalid Al-Jafla can also be registered for the FIA World Baja Cup and wheels out his Taurus T3 Max. 

Austrians Vic Flip and Mark Mustermann will not be registered for factors of their Can-Ams, nor are Portugal’s Alexandre Pinto (Can-Am) and the Arcane T3 duo of Briton Richard Aczel and Dutchman Hans Weijs.

FIA World Baja Cup chief Alvarez tops SSV class

Not solely does Fernando Alvarez lead the general Drivers’ Championship in his Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR, however the Spaniard has a 26-point cushion over Miguel Toril within the battle for SSV honours. 

Six of the seven SSV entrants are registered for championship factors and Toril and his brother Alex wheel out a pair of Escuderia JMP Racing Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RRs with their respective co-drivers Rosa Romero and Pedro Lopez. Alex Toril is third within the factors’ standings. 

French veteran Claude Fournier is a distant fourth within the title race and groups up with Serge Gounon in his Can-Am, whereas Italian Amerigo Ventura (Yamaha) and Saudi Arabian driver Ibrahim Al-Muhanna (Can-Am) are additionally registered for factors. Pole Tomasz Bialkowski has entered the occasion however just isn’t registered for the championship.

A Prologue of 6.77km will get the aggressive motion underway on Friday (August 23) and that may decide the beginning positions for the primary of two particular phases by means of the close by navy proving ranges at Drawsko Pomorskie on Saturday. The 2 specials begin at Konotop and run for 151km apiece within the morning and afternoon.

The aggressive motion is accomplished by a pair of 26.27km phases on Sunday. The specials begin in Slawoszewo and end at Szczecin Zawadzkiego and are break up into two sections of 16.05km and 10.22km. The primary part ends in Wolczkowo and the second begins in the identical place after a neutralisation. In whole, crews will deal with 354.54 aggressive kilometres.

2024 Columna Medica Baja Poland – entry checklist:

Timetable of occasions