Alejandro Martins, in cars, was the big winner of the Baja de Loulé, which ended this Sunday, April 8, in what was the second race of the Portuguese All-terrain Championship (CPTT).
António Maio (motorbikes), Arnaldo Martins (quads) and João Monteiro/Manuel Pereira (SSV) were the other winners.
The slopes of the Serra do Caldeirão welcomed the competitors of the Baja de Loulé 2018 for the second and last day of the race, marked by less rain but still with a low temperature. The competitors had to face two selective sectors, disputed alternately between cars and motorcycles/quads/SSV's, coming then to finish the race on the podium installed at Jardim das Comunidade in Almancil.
In cars, Alejandro Martins/José Marques won the second victory of their career, the first in the CPTT AFN 2018. This pair, who were at the controls of a Toyota Hi-Lux assisted by the MRacing team, benefited from the bad luck of the great dominators of the competition, João Ramos/Victor Jesus, who saw their Hi-Lux gearbox damaged in the final kilometers, bringing the car to the finish with great sacrifice.
Those who also moved up positions with this setback by Ramos were Hélder Oliveira/Pedro Pires de Lima in Cattiva Sport's Mini Paceman, Pedro Ferreira/Hugo Magalhães in South Racing's Ford Ranger and Tiago Reis/Valter Cardoso in Mitsubishi Racing Lancer.
«It is also worth mentioning the fantastic performance of Pedro Dias da Silva/José Janela with the Mazda CX-5 Proto of the Mazda Total Challenge, who won this trophy and even finished in sixth place overall, having made intermediate times among the “great”» , says the organization.
In the vehicles closest to the series, Rui Sousa/Carlos Silva keep the tune started in last year's edition of this race and take the seventh consecutive victory in the T2 category with the Isuzu D-Max prepared by Prolama.
Among the T8, the victory went to Mário Duarte/José Motaco, even with the mechanics of the Toyota RAV4 from M&B Racing causing them some chills in the final part of the race. Note also for the competitors of the TT Portugal Cup, who did not complete the entire course, and whose fastest team was formed by Simão Comenda/Luís Coito in a Nissan Pick-up.
Between the two wheels, champion António Maio dominated the race from end to end, with almost nine minutes ahead of Mário Patrão, even though he has not yet recovered 100% from the health problem that kept him from the last edition of the Dakar, he managed to win the TT3 category with Motobrioso's KTM.
In the lowest place on the podium was the young Martim Ventura on Yamaha in the TT1 category, who won, ahead of theoretically superior bikes. Bernardo Vilar showed that maybe he won't forget and took his KTM to victory in the Veterans, while Ivan Ferreira (Kawasaki) triumphed in the Promotion.
In the quads, Arnaldo Martins (Suzuki) repeated the victory of the previous year, with almost two and a half minutes ahead of Fernando Cardoso (Yamaha), with the third being Filipe Silva (Suzuki). Also noteworthy is the Hobby class, aimed at bikers with little competitive experience in recent years, where Márcio Encarnação (Yamaha) was the winner, followed by Louletano Renato Palma (KTM) and Anthony Nicholls (KTM).
In the increasingly popular SSV, João Monteiro/Manuel Pereira were the winners, having always been the fastest competitors on Sunday, also heading the Can-Am's sextet that topped the overall standings, with the podium being completed with Pedro Santinho Mendes /Vítor Mendes and Marco and João Silva, who won the Junior category.
Mário Franco/Luís Engeitado, assisted by Franco Sport, won between T2 and the Yamaha Open Trophy, while Pedro Grancha/Tomás Neves won between Veterans, Dorothée Ferreira/Bernardette Vanderschelsen between Ladies, Francisco Guedes/Nuno Leotte on Promotion, Vasco de Melo in the Yamaha Stock Trophy, João Dias/João Filipe in the Polaris Turbo Trophy and Alexandre Freitas/Francisco Caeiro in the Polaris N/Turbo Trophy
The Baja de Loulé 2018 was organized by the Clube Automóvel do Algarve (CAAL) under the aegis of the Portuguese Federation of Automobile and Karting and the Portuguese Motorcycling Federation, with the high sponsorship of the municipality of Loulé and the Parish Council of Almancil and also with the support of the municipalities of S. Brás de Alportel, Tavira, Alcoutim, and Almodôvar, Algarpneus, Solverde Casinos and Hotels, Acrimolde and COPS.
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