And so concluded the first day of the Hungarian Baja. And yet it may seem an ordinary beginning of a race week-end, we'd like to show you the atmosphere of the Friday in magical hues.

First magic came when Boris Gadasin and Tonnie van Deijne exchanged their start numbers. No, not in literal sence, for they didn't replace stickers on the sides of their cars. Just they started Leg 1 in order Gadasin - van Deijne, but it will be the dutchman who will go ahead of the G-Force Motorsport crew tomorrow.

That's all because Tonnie completed SS1 7 seconds faster than the Russians. So Boris together with his co-driver Vladimir Demyanenko will be catching up tomorrow, however we can't name their start position unfavourable, because staying first on the road would be more difficult, while the dust factor isn't so important for the first couple of cars, even if the weather stays dry.  "We won't take any big risks after we didn't get any points in Spain. We'll try to drive fast but at the same time as reliable as possible in order to turn our gap around", - commented the Russian driver.

Another faerie occured with the on-line timing system, which for a few minutes put Miroslav Zapletal on top of the stage standings. The Czech , when we told him about that, was sincerely surprised since he complained of a dust from the car ahead that prevented him from showing a better pace. Indeed, Artem Verentsov, seeded 4th due to his FIA Priority status, was slower in a "standard" Toyota, and even though our compatriots let the more powerful SuperProduction vehicle pass them soon enough, the Czech crew lost much time on the catching up. Eventually they were left to be satisfied with 4th place on the stage.

Having read the entry list carefully, you could probably have found another riddle. This year we've already used to former rally driver Giovanni Manfrinato competing in the FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas events, but for some strange reason we could see two Manfrinato persons on the start list of the Hungarian Baja. It turned out that his brother Antonio, who has some experience of competing in African races, also decided to take part in the race. The brothers were close to each other even in the standings as they reached the finish line 12th and 13th respectively (but we must mentioned that Giovanni was unfortunately handicapped by some electrical problems). Small wonders didn't stop on that. While we were waiting for the official results to be at last published, we were gratefully rewarded with the GPS navigation system glitches. The men responsible for the system managed to cure the problem (actually replace the faulty unit) in around 1.5 hours...

Well... Yes, that's the word how the day ended for those crews who continue their quest. And while competitors take a rest after a wearysome day, you can feel the atmosphere of the event by looking at some photographs from the route as well as some fantasmagoric pictures from the venue... Tomorrow there will be 4 laps (each consists of 2 special stages about 50 kilometres long, the latter repating today's route) to cover, after which the fastest (and the strongest!) will be rewarded at the podium ceremony at 10 p.m. local time - just at the same magic pinewood hill, which's been the centre of the Hungarian motorsport for a few days already.

Results after Leg 1 available here.

Igor Chervonny