Overdrive Racing’s Guillaume de Mevius and Mathieu Baumel made a superb start to their new partnership to clinch a memorable victory in the gruelling Baja Spain Aragon, round three of the FIA World Baja Cup.
The weekend was made even more rewarding for the Belgian car preparation specialist when Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuska and his Spanish co-driver Oriol Vidal guided the second of five Toyota Hiluxes to second place to complete a superb 1-2 finish in the punishing heat of central Spain.
De Mevius said: “So, here we are at the end of the race and we won, so very good, very happy. My first time with Mathieu, first time for me winning overall in a race, so a very good weekend for us. I am looking forward to the next step now.”
Baciuska added: “It was a tough rally. We had to open the stages on Saturday, first and second. I was driving carefully today because I thought I had a puncture in the beginning. In the last 20km, I had a flat rear tyre and I drove carefully to the finish. This was my first ever race in 2021 with T4. It was a good experience. This was the second time with Toyota.”
Juan Cruz Yacopini of Argentina and his Spanish co-driver Daniel Oliveras delivered another strong performance over difficult dusty terrain and in intense heat to bring the third Toyota to the finish in sixth overall.
Yacopini said: “I’m so happy to be here. We made a good last stage. We made no big mistakes. We improve a lot the style of driving.”
Saudi Arabian Yazeed Al-Rajhi and his German co-driver Timo Gottschalk suffered a rear suspension A-arm bolt breakage on the second stage on Saturday and lost a lot of time to the leaders. They recovered in the best possible way to win the third stage on Sunday but the damage had been done and the Saudi finished the Baja in 73rd overall.
Poland’s Martin Kaczmarski returned to cross-country rallying after a 10-year absence and teamed up with Armand Monleon in the fifth of the Overdrive Racing Toyotas. After their own fair share of delays on Saturday, the crew reached the finish in 74th.
“I came back after 10 years away,” said Kaczmarski. “I was also in Aragón 10 years ago with Toyota. It has been something special because I love cross-country. But, in 2014, I had a big accident in the car after Dakar and couldn’t go anymore. Then I moved to rally cross and races. This year, I also did a few races in GT3 but this is my biggest love.”
An amended itinerary saw the Prologue stage run for just 5.83km and the two selective sections on Saturday modified slightly to 163.33km and 181.21km, respectively. Sunday’s final competitive stage ran for 162.41km.
De Mevius made the perfect start to his new partnership with Baumel and the duo carded the fastest time on the Prologue to beat Al-Rajhi by 6.3 seconds. Baciuska finished fourth, Kaczmarski was 26th and Yacopini settled into 35th but the times only counted towards starting positions and were not added to the total times.
De Mevius continued on the opening stage where he had left off in the Prologue and the Belgian won the opening stage to edge into a 1min 37.9sec advantage over team-mate Baciuska. Al-Rajhi came home in third to give Overdrive Racing a perfect 1-2-3 start to their Spanish challenge. Yacopini and Kaczmarski were classified in ninth and 11th.
De Mevius was in inspired form and he finished the longer second stage 3min 09.8sec faster than Baciuska to extend his overall lead to 4min 47.7sec. But Al-Rajhi stopped early in the stage with a technical problem and then again with a broken bolt on the lower suspension A-arm closer to the finish and was not able to continue. He was classified in 79th place, two positions above Kaczmarski. Yacopini finished the day in sixth overall.
De Mevius said: “It was a difficult second part of the day for us. We had a problem before the start of the second stage with a broken belt on the road section, so we changed it. The belt drives the air conditioner and it takes a lot of power, so we decided to drive without the air conditioner for the stage. It was midday so it was hot in the car. But we made it!”
Al-Rajhi recovered strongly to win the final stage after his delays on Saturday but the third quickest time for De Mevius was sufficient for the Belgian to seal a memorable victory. Baciuska and Yacopini finished the last stage in eighth and ninth but, more importantly, they reached the finish in Teruel in second and sixth overall.
Poland hosts round four of the FIA World Baja Cup on August 23rd-25th.
2024 Baja Spain Aragón – provisional result (top 20 only):
1. Guillaume de Mevius (BEL)/Mathieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 6hr 12min 26.5sec*
2. Rokas Baciuska (LTU)/Oriol Vidal (ESP) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 6hr 18min 53.3sec
3. Joao Ferreira (PRT)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT) Mini JCW Rally Plus 6hr 19min 29.9sec
4. Eryk Goczal (ESP)/Oriol Mena (ESP) Taurus T3 Max 6hr 23min 56.1sec
5. Joan Roma (ESP)/Alex Haro (ESP) Ford Ranger T1+ 6hr 25min 28.4sec*
6. Juan Cruz Yacopini (ARG)/Daniel Oliveras (ESP) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 6hr 32min 58.0sec
7. Ghislain de Mevius (BEL)/Johan Jalet (BEL) G Rally Team OT3 6hr 38min 33.8sec
8. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Edouard Boulanger (FRA) Taurus T3 Max 6hr 39min 11.6sec*
9. Emilio Fernandez (CHL)/Alvaro Leon Quintanilla (CHL) Taurus T3 Max 6hr 39min 23.1sec*
10. Joao Dias (PRT)/Pedro Re (PRT) G Rally Team OT3 6hr 42min 17.7sec
11. Rui Carneiro (PRT)/Ola Floene (NOR) G Rally Team OT3 6hr 42min 22.8sec*
12. Alejandro Martins (PRT)/David Monteiro (PRT) Mini JCW Rally Plus 6hr 44min 48.1sec*
13. Goncalo Guerreiro (PRT)/Jose Sa Pires (PRT) Polaris RXR Pro R Sport 6hr 48min 12.2sec*
14. Eduardo Pons (ESP)/Jaume Betriu (ESP) Taurus T3 Max 6hr 49min 59.7sec
15. Roberto Rodrigues (ESP)/Herman Rodrigues (ESP) Herrator Inzane 901 6hr 52min 41.4sec*
16. Jose Manuel Rogeira (PRT)/Paulo Jorge Capela (PRT) Ford Ranger 6hr 54min 52.4sec*
17. Puck Klaasen (NLD)/Augusto Sanz (ESP) G Rally Team OT3 6hr 56min 29.9sec*
18. Michal Goczal (POL)/Francois Cazalet (FRA) Taurus T3 Max 6hr 56min 36.8sec
19. Pedro Carvalho (PRT)/Nuno Morais (PRT) Can-Am Maverick X3 6hr 58min 09.1sec*
20. Ruben Rodrigues (PRT)/Rui Paulo (PRT) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR 7hr 01min 50.3sec*
Select others
73. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 9hr 57min 01.8sec
74. Martin Kaczmarski (POL)/Armand Monleon (ESP) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 10hr 10min 30.5sec*
*not registered for FIA World Cup
