Italian Baja - the thir...cond round of the FIA Cup
Sunday, 15 March 2009 03:37
Cancellation of the first round in Saudi Arabia brought a little mess into the FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas calendar. "Northern Forest" stayed the second round (according to the official documents) though effectively being the first event in the season. That's why it was difficult to define the order number of the Italian Baja 2009. Was it third? Or maybe secord or thirnd? The truth has seemed to be somewhere in the middle... Up to the moment.
Now everything is clear.
Italian Baja. March 19th-21st, 2009. The 2nd round of the FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas.
The HQ of the Baja is situated in the Pordenone province. The crews will have to tackle 6 special stages (among which there's an almost 10-kilometre long SSS "Ponte Rosso") and cover 421 competitive kilometres (The total distance of the race is 761 km). Italian Baja Itinerary.
There're 44 crews in the entry list, and 38 of them take part in the international competition. There're 3 Russian crews among the participants:
№1 Boris Gadasin/Vladimir Demyanenko (G-Force Motorsport)
№11 Alexander Mironenko/Sergey Talantsev
№22 Yaroslav Solovyev/Konstantin Zhil'tsov
We must remind you that Boris Gadasin is favourite to win this race: in 2007 he took an outright victory there, while in 2008 he was second overall.
Photogallery of the Italian Baja on their official web-site: www.italianbaja.com |
Those who used to follow the series in the past will probably be surprised not to see Boris Gadasin's regular rival Nasser Al Attiyah among the entrants, but unfortunately the FIA International Cup is not on the priority list of Volkswagen Motorsport which the qataree joined in the off-season.
But the lack of some other famous names doesn't mean there won't be tough competition at all. Besides Boris, the dutchman Tonnie van Daijne and the czech Miroslav Zapletal will definitely fight for the prizes. Tonnie took third in the FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas last year, while Miroslav is well-known to Russian fans for his performances in the "Northern Forest" Baja, where he came third this year on his only second attempt. In addition, there are 5 Italian priority drivers who have much experience on their home soil. Also one shouldn't forget about Giovanni Manfrinato, who got used to his new car on the Russian round and is now ready to fight on his favourite gravel surface. So we can expect an interesting and fascinating fight on the renewed route of the 2nd round of the FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas - Italian Baja 2009!
Follow the news on our web-site!
Igor Chervonny
P.S. Interesting: The organisers of the Italian Baja released a limited edition of postcards with all the winners of their race. Among them, of course, there's a postcard with a picture of Boris Gadasin in action... it could be a good souvenir for collectors to get such a card signed by the FIA Cup's winner 2007 directly from Pordenone...