Today’s leaders are Holowczyc (cars), Sant (bikes) and Machacek (quads). But all the Italian Baja is praying for Dutto
Touching and tragical moments in today’s Italian Baja. The biker Nicola Dutto,from Cuneo, had a serious accident during the first lap this morning, along the first track on the Tagliamento river, after the junction with the other small river Cosa, near Provesano (San Giorgio della Richinvelda). The biker felt down from his Suzuki in a hard changing of route conditions because of the stony territory and hurted his back. Immediately came the medical service and the helicopter which brought Dutto at the hospital of Udine where he’s being operated. At the moment we are not able to say anything about the medical refert, available in the late evening. It’s a real pity, because the Italian Baja was giving big emotions to the public, with several surprises. During the first lap of the International Cross Country Competition, the favourite Boris Gadasin, the Russian winner of the 2007 and 2009 editions, had to withdraw because his car’s engine broke, stopping the fast start of Friday afternoon. The leader of the overall ranking is the Polish Kristofz Holowczyc with his Nissan Navara, who came at the final line in 2h14’25’’ followed by the Belgian Van Cauwenberge (Nissan) with a gap of 2’17’’. Third temporary place for the Russian Novitskiy who is saving points for the Team G-Force Gadasin. Six foreign Teams seized on the first six places. Giovanni manfrinato came 7th and 1st as Italian pilot, with an prototype off road Renault Megane; behind him Holowczyc with a gap of 11’22’, but ahead of Maurizio Traglio (Nissan Pathfinder) with a gap of 49’’, the pilot from Como together with his navigator, the local Miss Erika Pajer.
Among bikes Mauro Sant leads the race only one second ahead of Alberto Basso and 48’’ of Paolo Ceci. Among quads the Czech Josef Machacek on the top of the classification, as everybody expected, who snipped 3’49’’ of the second pilot’s time.
Tomorrow the second and last stage of the Italian Baja, with last 2 laps for cars and 3 for bikes and quads. Arrival line in Spilimbergo with prize giving on the stage erected in Garibaldi Square.
