The Portuguese crew of Miguel Barbosa and Paulo Fiúza secured a commanding victory in the 38th Baja Portalegre 500 (October 17-19) but were not registered for points in the eight-round FIA World Baja Cup.

The final stage ran for 166.20km in deteriorating stage and weather conditions and there were numerous changes across the leader board with Barbosa claiming the fastest time in his Taurus T3 Max to secure victory by 5min 14sec from Gonçalo Guerreiro and José Sá Pires in their SSV category-winning Polaris RXR Pro R. 

Barbosa said: “This was a very difficult event as always. This is a very special and unique event. We did a good Prologue and then had technical problems on the afternoon stage. We finished with two good stages. The car was perfect. There were a lot of problems for our competitors. I had already won this race three times and to get back to winning ways was very special.”

Paulo Rodrigues and his Spanish co-driver José Sebastian Cesana rounded off the podium finishers but none of the top three crews were registered for the FIA World Baja Cup. 

A broken belt on stage two cost the Portuguese pairing of João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro around six minutes but they recovered strongly in their X-Raid Mini JCW Rally Plus to finish fifth behind Edgar Reis and Fábio Ribeiro. They remain firmly in contention for the overall title and success in the Ultimate category with maximum FIA World Baja Cup points being earned in both categories.

Co-driver Palmeiro said: “We have not had the best last day. The first stage, we had a belt broken on the engine and we stopped to change. In the last stage, we had some troubles with a puncture and the kill switch was gone. But we made it.”

Santag Racing’s Rui Serpa and Rui Pita finished third in the SSV section in their Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR behind South Racing’s João Monteiro and Filipe Alves, but the Italian duo of Amerigo Ventura and Erika Mingozzi earned maximum SSV points for guiding their Quaddy Racing Yamaha YXZ  1000R to being the first of the registered crews in the SSV section in 15th position. 

Ventura said: “We pushed so hard. We enjoyed this amazing landscape. I now know why Portuguese drivers are so fast. Driving here is so difficult. With the last modification to the suspension, we were able to push from the first to the last kilometre. We were the only Yamaha crew here. We are very happy with this result.”

Eduardo Pons and Oriol Mena finished 17th in the general classification but picked up points for being third in the FIA World Baja Cup and maximum points in the Challenger category to lead the latter series with three rounds remaining. Rival Khalid Al-Jafla finished second of the registered Challenger drivers in his Taurus T3 Max.

Pons said: “It all went well. Rivers, wet and cold and problems with the car. It was not performing properly. Finally, third in the World Cup. That was good. My competitors had problems and they didn’t finish.“

Fernando Alvarez began the event with the outright lead in the Drivers’ Championship and a comfortable cushion in the SSV section. He and French co-driver Xavier Panseri were classified 21st overall but fourth of the registered FIA contenders and second in SSV. Alvarez lost ground to Ferreira in the championship tussle but remains well ahead in the SSV section. 

João Dias and João Miranda had finished third on the opening stage and second on the next one on Saturday morning before suffering problems on the final stage that cost them potential outright victory and success in the Challenger category. Marco Pereira retired on the last stage after Alejandro Martins had suffered engine issues on stage three. 

South Racing Can-Am’s Diego Martinez and Sergio Lafuente began the event with slender leads in the Challenger Drivers’ and Co-drivers’ Championship but suffered a setback to their title challenges when they were forced to retire on the second stage. Rival Belgian Ghislain de Mévius (G Rally Team OT3) retired on the last stage. 

João Ramos sustained terminal engine damage on his Toyota Hilux on the Prologue stage and leading Portuguese Championship contenders Tiago Reis and Armindo Araújo also retired prematurely, as did Cristiano Batista and Otávio Leite.

The South Racing Can-Am Team retained its lead over Overdrive Racing and Escuderia JMP Racing in the Teams’ Championship.

Sixty-six cars were granted a start after official administration and scrutineering checks with 19 competing in the Ultimate category, 33 in Challenger and 14 in SSV. 

The FIA World Baja Cup continues in Qatar on October 30th-November 2nd.