Italian Baja, prologue: rehearsal for Vanagas
By Stephan Wolf
The Italian Baja program on Friday consisted of two main parts — the morning shakedown and the evening prologue (based on its results the starting positions for Saturday are selected). 28 crews started in the international standings - 10 in Ultimate, 11 in Challenger, 6 in SSV and 1 in Stock.
The fastest on the prologue was Portugal’s João Ferreira in the Mini JCW Rally Plus. Lithuanian Benediktas Vanagas (Toyota Hilux T1) and Polish Michał Małuszyński (Mini JCW Rally Plus) also finished in the top three. After choosing the starting positions, it is known that Vanagas will be the first to start on the track on Saturday.
Benediktas Vanagas (#202, Toyota Hilux T1+, Ultimate): “We have just finished the prologue of the Italian Baja, where we ended up second. Now we need to think about what starting position to choose for tomorrow. And really the big question is. Because tomorrow we’ll be doing the same special stage three times.
Most likely, during the first running there will be really a lot of water on the fords. We’ve seen this kind of thing before in the prologue. I think most of the water will be gone after the first run tomorrow. And then there will just be a lot of mud - maybe there will be better grip on the track surface. We have to think about it, weigh all the pros and cons.
Actually the stage was in some places was very technical and very twisty and really narrow. In some cases it was just very fast, wide and this special road with a lot of small stones what you can find only maybe here in Italian Baja. Okay, the prologue had a technical stage, we got through it, and let’s head into tomorrow”.
Photo Credits: team social media
