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 | Baja Spain: Filipe Campos in cars and Gerard Farrès in bikes winners in Spain.
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After eighteen times participating in the Baja, the Portuguese Filipe Campos (X-raid BMW X3CC) finally got his first victory on Sunday, an achievement which he has described as "really meaningful". Although he has already been three times in the podium, he doesn’t consider himself an "expert in the Baja".
The triumvirate has been completed by two Dutch: Bernhard Ten Brinke and Erik Van Loon (both Mitsubishi Racing Lancer), second and third, respectively, who also dominated the last stage of today’s journey together with his fellow Wevers (also Mitsubishi), fifth in the general clasification and Gert Huzink (9th).
On fourth position a second great result for a X-raid BMW X3CC - but not for the work-team. The Czech privateers and former FIA World Cup winner Miroslav Zapletal and Tomas Ourednicek finished with 15:32 minutes after the leader with their white-grey BMW.
During the press conference that took place after the final stage, Ten Brinke has stressed that "all the pieces were in place this time, so everything has fitted perfectely", while Van Loon has declared that he was "very pleased" with his position because he "didn’t expect it".
Leonid Novitskiy (X-raid BMW X3CC) and Jean Jouis Schlesser (Schlesser Buggy), the main favourites before the race started, have suffered from various mechanical problems which have pushed them back to a seventh position and tenth position. Therefore, the Russian Novitskiy and his German codriver Andreas Schulz keeps his leading role in the FIA Cross Country World Cup 2011.
Among the Spaniards, Mark Blázquez has been the first, followed by Salvador Segura and Francesc Termens. Representing the only entire female team, the driver Marta Súria has ended up in the thirty sixth place.
In the motorbike category, Marc Coma has starred the great disappointment of the day when he was forced to leave due to do a mechanical problem of his KTM right at the beginning of the last stage. Coma, who has leading until then, was overtaken by Gerard Farrés, who achived today his third victory in a Baja.
Farres dedicated kind words to his colleague, assuring that Coma showed a "great fair play" when the driver, once the incident had taken place, adviced him to "go slowly to assure the victory".
Behind him, Paulo Gonçalves has ended up his first participation in a second place and has said that he will return next year, while young Adrià (20) assured that for him a third position was a dream and he couldn’t ask for something else.
In quads, Óscar Romero has proven its vast superiority with his third consecutive victory, followed by Massimiliano Masante and Maxime Albira.
In the trucks category, Josep Vila Roca (De Rooy Iveco) has accomplished his mision achieving a first position after having been sixth in this year’s Dakar. After him, David Oliveras (Mercedes SK), who was twice winner, and Manuel Borrero (Mercedes SK).
2011/07/25 | 02:10 CET | ARTICLE: MR/SY/BAJA SPAIN/KLOUBERT
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