João Ramos/Victor Jesus (Autos), João Lourenço (Motorcycles), Roberto Borrego (Quads) and Pedro Santinho Mendes are the winners of the 2019 edition of Baja Loulé, whose second and last day took place this Sunday, with competitors to fulfill two Selective Sectors (SS), played alternately between Autos and Motorcycles/Quads/SSV.
Among the records that make up the national TT park, there was a close fight until the end, with the first selective section of the morning being led by Alexandre Ré/Hugo Magalhães (VW), who thus increased the leadership achieved the day before.
However, João Ramos/Victor Jesus (Toyota) put all the potential of his car into action in the last SS, ending up winning the race with more than a minute of advantage.
The third place was the Ford of Pedro Dias da Silva/José Janela, already 17 minutes from the winners.
The fastest in the T2 and T8 categories were, respectively, Georgino Pedroso/Carlos Silva (Isuzu) and João Rato/Pedro Colaço (Land Rover) and the victory among the competitors in the TT Portugal Cup belonged to José Maia/Sérgio Cruz ( Nissan).
The bikes completed the second selective sector in first place and, from the outset, the leader of the race, João Lourenço, showed that he was not in a mood of calm and control, ending up being the fastest.
João Lourenço only lost nine seconds to the more direct competition in the second pass control, but was fastest at all other timing points.
The pilot ended up winning with 5 minutes and 58 seconds of advantage over the 2nd placed, Salvador Vargas (KTM), who would become the best among the competitors in the Junior category.
The victory of João Lourenço, who manned a Beta with a 2-stroke engine, marked the return to the triumphs of a pilot from the Algarve region in this race, something that had not happened since 2010, when Ruben Faria was the winner.
For his part, Daniel Jordão managed to secure the lowest place on the podium on his Yamaha, having also won the TT2 class.
Bernardo Megre (Husqvarna), who won among the competitors in the TT1 class, finished in the next position. In the Promotion, the triumphs fell to Armindo Neves (SWM) between Veterans and Vítor Lopes (KTM), while in the competitors in the Hobby category, pilots who do not have a sports license, the fastest was Sérgio Carapinha (Yamaha).
Although only three machines competed, the fight for victory was quite intense in the quads, with Roberto Borrego progressively catching up with Luís Engeitado, at the end of Saturday, to finish the race in first position, conquered in the last few forty kilometers of proof!
Among the popular SSVs, the fight was also raging, with the comeback taking place in the last kilometers of the race, when the Brazilian duo Cristiano Batista/Fábio Zeller lost a lot of time and dropped to 9th place, with Pedro Santinho Mendes the thus inheriting the first place and becoming the winner of the competition.
He was followed on the podium by Nuno Fontes/José Sá Pires and João Dias/Emanuel Alves, all in Can-Am. The best classified in the TT2 category was the Yamaha of André Rodrigues/Ricardo Porto Nunes.
Baja de Loulé was organized by the Clube Automóvel do Algarve, under the aegis of the Portuguese Federation of Automobile and Karting and the Portuguese Motorcycling Federation, with the support of the municipalities of Loulé, Alcoutim, Tavira and São Brás de Alportel and the Junta of Almancil Parish and the sponsorship of Algarve Wines.
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