Nobody had an answer for Tiago Reis at the Baja Greece.

After beginning the 2025 FIA European Baja Cup by finishing second overall and winning Challenger in Extremadura, Reis continued his momentum by winning the Prologue and three of four Selective Sections. He and Mitchel van den Brink were the top cars throughout the race, finishing first and second from SS1 to SS3; Reis beat the latter by 4:41.8 in the first, 2:09.1 in the second, and 1:28.3 in the third.

Miroslav Zapletal prevented Reis from completing a perfect weekend by winning SS4, though by the slimmest of margins as his time of 4:00.3 was six tenths of a second quicker than Reis’. Of course, that made little difference in the overall battle as Reis still swept the two stages and the overall to earn the maximum 86 points.

Van den Brink still walked away with the SSV win to begin his FIA World Baja Cup pursuit on a strong note. Besides being his first Baja Cup victory, he earned 83 points to launch himself into second in the WBC SSV standings. A third in the Prologue among WBC drivers, behind Zapletal and Hamed Al-Wahaibi, prevented him from getting the full points for the series like Reis.

Regardless, he has plenty of momentum for the rest of the World Baja Cup.

“We are super happy with this first victory,” said van den Brink. “This is a great start to the season for us.

“It was really cool. It was a tricky rally. Both days we had to be really focused for every stage. One small mistake and you go into the abyss. Fortunately, we did not experience any issues.”

WBC SSV leader Paul Severn earned 33 points with a seventh in class, keeping him atop the standings for now.

Behind Reis and van den Brink, Zapletal was third overall but second for WBC drivers. With 77 points earned from Greece, he leapfrogs the absent Juan Cruz Yacopini and Sergei Remennik for the World Baja Cup overall lead.

The second edition of the Baja Greece was the first in which it was on both the FIA World and European Baja Cups. On the latter side, Hungarian drivers seemed to have a hard time in their first time competing in the event.

Balázs Molnár narrowly lost the EBC SSV win to Murat Kapanoğlu following a flat tire 100 kilometers into SS2. He also suffered a rash of speeding penalties, which confounded him since the car has a speed limiter. Csucsu had to deal with electrical and brake problems, and even finished Stage 1 without his windshield.

Italian historic rally team Tecnosport, which usually competes in the Dakar Classic, brought their fleet of Nissans to Greece. Lorenzo Traglio, who has finished runner-up in the last two Dakar Classics, was once again a bridesmaid as he placed second for TZ1 cars (those with expired or no FIA homologation).

FIA

Ultimate

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	3	200	Miroslav Zapletal	Marek Sýkora	Offroadsport	Ford F-150 EVO	T1+	8:42:59.5	Leader
2	5	201	Mark Mustermann	Michael Zajc	MM Rallye	Toyota Hilux	T1+	8:56:10.9	+ 13:11.4
3	9	202	Magdalena Zajac	Błażej Czekan	Proxcars TME Rally Team	Toyota Hilux	T1.1	9:17:15.7	+ 34:16.2

Challenger

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	1	301	Tiago Reis	Paulo Fiúza	Team Transfradelos	Taurus T3 Max	T3.1	8:17:46.1	Leader
2	10	302	Miguel Valero Chuliá	Carlos Ruiz Moreno	Gedeser XXI	VM Competition T34	T3.1	9:17:18.1	+ 59:32.0
3	11	300	Khalid Al-Jafla	Andrei Rudnitski	Al-Jafla Racing	Taurus T3 Max	T3.1	9:38:6.8	+ 1:20:30.7
4	16	304	Csucsu	Márk Mesterházi	Speedy Motorsport	Can-Am Maverick X3	T3.1	15:48:33.9	+ 7:30:47.8
5	17	303	Lőrinc Mészáros	Albert Horn	M1 Motorsport	G Rally OT3	T3.1	22:56:47.0	+ 14:39:00.9

SSV

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	1	407	Mitchel van den Brink	Bart van Heun	Eurol Rally Sport / South Racing Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR	SSV1	8:26:39.7	Leader
2	4	406	Amerigo Ventura	Erika Mingozzi	Quaddy Racing	Yamaha YXZ1000R	SSV1	8:46:15.4	+ 19:35.7
3	6	403	Diego Martinez	Sergio Lafuente	South Racing Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR	T4	8:58:41.2	+ 32:01.5
4	7	410	Murat Kapanoğlu	Alexander Trendafilov	Murat Kapanoğlu	Can-Am Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR	T4	9:08:29.5	+ 41:49.8
5	8	405	Balázs Molnár	Gabriella Molnár	M1 Motorsport	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	9:09:43.8	+ 43:04.1
6	12	408	Yağız Birinci	Uğur Tepe	Yağız Birinci	Can-Am Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR	T4	9:38:28.4	+ 1:11:48.7
7	13	400	Paul Severn	Max Delfino	Paul Severn Racing	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	10:10:03.1	+ 1:43:23.4
8	14	404	Eugenio Amos	Paolo Ceci	South Racing Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR	T4	10:25:15.8	+ 1:58:36.1
9	18	401	Maha Al-Hamali	Michaël Metge	South Racing Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR	T4	24:48:53.5	+ 16:22:13.8
DNF	DNF	402	Hamed Al-Rahaibi	Ilka Minor	R-X Sport	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	DNF	N/A

Stock

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	15	500	Bartłomiej Wajzer	Ernest Gorecki	Bartłomiej Wajzer	Toyota Land Cruiser KDJ 155	T2.1	11:22:12.0	Leader

National Baja Trophy

SSV

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	1	807	Netanel Azulay	Ziv Karmi	Netanel Azulay	Polaris RZR Pro R	9:13:31.0	Leader
2	2	804	İsrafıl Akyüz	Mert Tepe	İsrafıl Akyüz	Can-Am Maverick R XRS	9:21:11.8	+ 7:40.8
3	3	802	Abdullah Turgut	Arda Şenay	Abdullah Turgut	Can-Am Maverick R XRS	9:37:07.2	+ 23:36.2
4	4	805	Lampros Dionysakopoulos	George Kanellopoulos	Lampros Dionysakopoulos	Can-Am Maverick R XRS	9:42:40.5	+ 29:09.5
5	5	808	Masud Taha	Amran Taha	Masud Taha	Can-Am Maverick R XRS	9:56:08.0	+ 43:37.0
6	6	801	Taxiarchis Adamopoulos	Theodoros Argyropoulos	Taxiarchis Adamopoulos	Can-Am Maverick R XRS	10:08:41.2	+ 55:10.2
7	9	809	Konstantin Politis	Dimitrios Polito	Konstantin Politis	Can-Am Maverick XPS 22	12:03:44.4	+ 2:50:13.4
8	17	806	Tal Galimidi	Tomer Nahum	GAL Racing	Can-Am Maverick R XRS	36:53:01.0	+ 27:39:30.0

TZ1

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	7	705	Fotios Koutsoumpos	Dimitrios Oikonomou	Fotios Koutsoumpos	Toyota Land Cruiser	TZ1.1	10:54:13.3	Leader
2	8	701	Lorenzo Traglio	Francesco Proietti	Tecnosport	Nissan R50 Pathfinder	TZ1.2	11:58:23.9	+ 1:04:10.6
3	10	702	Maurizio Traglio	Monica Buonamano	Maurizio Traglio	Nissan Pick-Up	TZ1.2	12:03:44.4	+ 1:09:31.1
4	11	707	Efstathios Charalampidis	Nikolaos Gkalfas	Efstathios Charalampidis	Jeep Wrangler	TZ1.3	14:28:37.9	+ 3:34:24.6
5	12	700	Ioannis Vorrias	Athanasios Mpakas	Ioannis Vorrias	Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution	TZ1.2	22:12:54.7	+ 11:18:41.4
6	13	706	Andreas Tziallas	Nikolaos Makarios	Andreas Tziallas	Jeep Grand Cherokee ZJ	TZ1.4	23:15:45.9	+ 12:21:32.6
7	14	703	Cameron Moore	Martina Ortoleva	Tecnosport	Nissan Patrol GR SW Y61	TZ1.3	25:31:46.3	+ 14:37:33.0
8	15	704	Filippo Colnaghi	Stefano Fabiano	Tecnosport	Nissan Patrol GR SW Y60	TZ1.3	34:52:00.0	+ 23:57:46.7
9	16	708	Apostolos Moraitis	Konstantinos Birmpilis	Apostolos Moraitis	Suzuki Jimny	TZ1.1	34:53:00.0	+ 23:58:46.7

Featured image credit: MCH Photo