Alexandre Ré/Hugo Magalhães (files), João Lourenço (motorbikes), Luís Engeitado (quads) and Cristiano Batista/Fábio Zeller (SSV) were the fastest, this Saturday, the first day of the 30th edition of Baja de Loulé.
The pilots faced the prologue in the morning to define the starting order in Vale Judeu, then dispute the first selective sector (SS1) in the afternoon, in a route starting and ending in the village of Cortelha.
In motorcycles, the domain belonged to João Lourenço, who won both the prologue and the first selective sector, driving the Beta with a 2-stroke engine in the TT3 category. The Algarve driver ended up with about two and a half minutes ahead of the trio Salvador Vargas (KTM, best Junior), Bernardo Megre (Husqvarna, best TT1) and Daniel Jordão (Yamaha, best TT2).
Among the Veterans, the fastest was Bernardo Vilar, in a KTM, being ninth overall. Also driving an Austrian motorcycle, Vitor Lopes was the highest ranked among the competitors in the Promotion.
As for the quads, Luís Engeitado got the better of Roberto Borrego and Filipe Martins, all at the controls of Yamaha.
Among the SSV squad, the initial dominance was Lourenço Rosa/Joaquim Dias, who were the fastest in the prologue, with the Lisbon pilot having problems early in SS1, thus leaving an open battle between Can-Am de Cristiano Batista/Fabio Zeller, Pedro Santinho Mendes, Pedro Carvalho/André Guerreiro and Aristides Júnior/Nuno Brandão, who finished in this order.
Among the cars in the TT2 category, the fastest were the duo José and Pedro Manescas on Yamaha.
As far as cars are concerned, this is the category where everything is more open, with João Ramos/Victor Jesus (Toyota) winning the prologue and maintaining the lead in the first pass control.
However, in the end, they would be overtaken by Alexandre Ré/Hugo Magalhães, who now have an 11-second lead over the defending champions.
The third classified are Nuno Matos/Pedro Marcão (Fiat), with the unlucky prize going to Nuno Madeira/Filipe Serra (Kia), a pair who gave up near the first pass control with engine problems.
Georgino Pedroso/Carlos Silva (Isuzu) were the fastest in the T2 category in the prologue, but during SS1, they were overtaken in the classification by the pair Sérgio Palminha/Rafael Lutas, in an identical car.
As for the T8, Francisco Barreto/Sérgio Cerveira (Nissan) were the first to go out on the road, but would be supplanted on the SS1 by João Rato/Pedro Colaço (Land Rover).
José Maia / Sérgio Cruz (Nissan) lead the classification of the TT Portugal Cup.
The action continues this Sunday, with the dispute of two selective sectors, which started at 08:10 am for motorcycles/quads/SSV and autos, both starting in the city of S. Brás de Alportel.
The competition will have its final podium in Almancil, at Jardim das Comunidade, and will be preceded by a musical moment, distribution of folklore and Easter egg hunting, an initiative promoted by the local Parish Council.
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