The Winner are Holowczyc, Basso and Machacek
Foreign pilots, as usual, have been the protagonists of the “Italian” race - SPILIMBERGO_ Italian Baja always sounds like a foreign race. The Polish Krzystof Holowczyc (Nissan), navigated by the Belgian Jean Marc Fortin, won in the overall time of 3h40’01’’ the 17th edition of the race, ahead of the Russian Bogdan Novitsky and Vitality Evtekhov (G-Force Proto) with a 3’49’’ gap and of the Hungarian Karoly Fazekas and Peter Maurer (Bmw X5) with a gap of 6’44’’. Last daily lap on the Special Stage “Pierre Lartigue”- the same of the stage dedicated to Edi Orioli but in the opposite direction – wasn’t lucky for the Belgian Joost Van Cauwenberge (Nissan), who lost his 2nd position because of the engine’s break and didn’t reach the podium. A grey day due to the weather conditions but also and above all because of everybody’s worry regarding the bad health conditions of Nicola Dutto – the unlucky biker who had a serious accident on Saturday’s first lap and still needs particular medical checks and assistance at the Hospital in Udine; this is why we will be able to learn something more about his conditions only in next days. Emotions and great sceneries waited both for pilots and public along the river Tagliamento. Holowczyc climbed up from the result of St. Peterburg’s race, because of the exclusion after the race for technical irregularities of its car. In the Fia Cup for International Baja he can now assure himself 15 points which let him share the second place with Boris Gadasin, while Novitskiy leads the race with 19 points. ITALIANS. First among Italian drivers Giovanni Manfrinato from Padua (Renault Megane), together with Claudio Condotta, who sized the 7th place in the overall classification with a gap of 16’37’’ from Holowczyc, as on Saturday ahead of Maurizio Traglio from Como (Nissan Pathfinder) and his navigator Erika Pajer from Pordenone, with a gap of 1.47”. The 3rd Italian driver was Mario Ricci (Nissan Navara) together with Silvano Fattori, with a gap of 10’06” from Manfrinato. BIKES AND QUADS. Race ended one lap before, because of safety reasons . All pilots today worry about Dutto’s conditions and weren’t in the right mood to make their best. Bikes and quads had to follow Saturday’s route, but it was more difficult today, as it was decided to be in the opposite direction and quiet ruined by cars. The winner among bikes was Alberto Basso (TM), from Porcia, in 2h55’51”, surprised protagonist of a hard fight against Mauro Sant from Udine (also TM pilot), who today seized on the second position with a gap of only 35”, while yesterday was the leader with just 1” gap from the 2nd place. He was used to work for Edi Orioli sharing with him his victories as Dakar’s biker. On the 3rd position the biker Alex Zanotti with a gap of 3’08”, first of the three Aprilia pilots together with Paolo Ceci on the 4th position with a gap of 3’54” and Lopez Chaleco from Chile, who seized on the5th position with a gap of 4’30”. The absolute winner among quads was the Czech “King of Dakar” (5 times on the first position) Josef Machacek (Yamaha Raptor 700) with a total time of 2h55’51’’, unreachable for all other pilots. The Portuguese Rafael Acurcio De Sousa (Paoletti 450) headed on the rest of the crew in 3h01’17’’, with a gap of 5’26’’; behind him Denis Rossetto (Mgm) with a distance of 22’’ and Tiziano Sette (Ktm 525) with a gap of 37’’. It’s really nice to see that the number of quad pilots is growing up year by year in this kind of races and above all at the Italian Baja. 4 wheels bikes offer an amazing show to the public and a lot of fun to pilots and give a big contribute to the event for all of them who are really fond of off-roads. Hopefully next year we could reach all together some more excellent goals.
