The FIA European Baja Cup previously began with the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura, which had a stage on a tank training ground at Base General Menacho de Bótoa. Cuenca might be on the opposite side of the country, but the stars of the FIA European Baja Cup are forgiven if they thought they were still driving across those tank fields in Badajoz.

The new EBC-opening Baja TT Cuenca was plagued by heavy rain, for nearly the entire weekend. Besides mud, they had to deal with rapidly changing terrain almost from the get-go.

“The prologue was nothing like the tests,” said Benediktas Vanagas. “If the morning was soft and technical, this was the opposite: washouts, hard ground, deep holes, and plenty of rocks. It’s totally different.”

Vanagas, who has committed to racing for the EBC title, was basically tasked with being the race sweeper as the first car on track. As a veteran rally raider and a volunteer reservist back in Lithuania, he’s more than familiar with driving across bumpy terrain and mud in both a Leopard 2 and his Toyota Hilux. He even joked at the 2024 Baja Extremadura that civilian off-road vehicles would struggle on the tank polygon yet the Hilux felt as good there as an Abrams or Leopard.

Unfortunately, Vanagas probably wished his Hilux was more like a barrel (see what we did there, Harry Turtledove?) during Saturday’s action. After being the second fastest in the Prologue behind João Ramos, he was leading SS1 after 105 kilometers until the power steering hose blew up. He surmised the hose was damaged by a very hard landing—one that generated 3.09 Gs of force—and caused air to enter the hydraulics. As oxygen continued to seep in, the hydraulic fluid leaked out until power steering was gone completely. Vanagas also pointed out the dip was marked on the roadbook as a single exclamation point when it would’ve been more appropriate as three (!!!), which would’ve encouraged drivers to slow down almost entirely.

Too far in a hole to make up any ground in the overall and salvage points, he opted to bow out there. He equated the DNF to a plane crash as both are incidents where “several seemingly small coincidences can lead to a major problem”.

He wasn’t the only Hilux with problems, let alone the only leader. Ramos also retired from the race with a mechanical issue. Magdalena Zając went off course in SS1 and into a tree, taking the wheel off and caking the nose in mud; after an extensive repair in the field, Zając got back in the race and was the last Ultimate car to reach the finish.

The weather initially seemed to improve on Saturday with a brief spell of sunlight before the rain returned. Things got so bad that SS3 had to be shortened from 122.48 kilometers to just 97.05.

“It rained almost the whole time,” Maria Luís Gameiro said. “On Saturday, we were unlucky when we hit a tree root which caused a puncture. Changing it in all that mud was a real challenge. Later, we had a technical problem and had to drive slower. Today was almost even more difficult as it was super slippery.

“But we are very happy because, despite the efforts, we were the second-fastest Ultimate vehicle. The track conditions were better for the SSVs and the Challengers. As it looks, we are leading the Ultimate standings of the FIA European Baja Cup, as Recuenco is not scoring points.”

FIA European Truck Racing Championship veteran Adam Lacko placed fifth in Ultimate in his cross-country rally debut.

Philip McVay was fined €500 before the race because his Can-Am needed a new FIA Technical Passport since the old one was outdated. The passport is only valid for six months from when it is approved by a given FIA national sporting authority. The FIA also handed down a 15-minute time penalty to Mariusz Wiatr for not yielding to several overtaking requests throughout SS1; he explained he didn’t get any notices, but a review of his Sentinel found the requests were properly transmitted.

FIA

Ultimate

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
1	1	205	Luis Recuenco	Daniel Camara	GPR Sport	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	5:33:02.5
2	9	208	Maria Luís Gameiro	Rosa Romero Font	X-raid Mini JCW Team	Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0d	T1+	6:21:20.1
3	10	210	Miguel Casca	Carlos Mendes	Miguel Casca	Volkswagen Amarok	T1.1	6:21:22.9
4	12	202	José Rogeira	Paulo Marques	767 / PRK Sport Rally Team	Ford Ranger	T1+	6:24:55.4
5	13	207	Adam Lacko	Mirko Brun	Buggyra ZM Racing	Red-Lined REVO+	T1+	6:31:22.4
6	14	206	Mariusz Wiatr	Łukasz Łaskawiec	Mariusz Wiatr	Ford F-150	T1+	6:33:39.4
7	18	209	Magdalena Zając	Błażej Czekan	Proxcars TME Rally Team	Toyota Hilux	T1.1	13:42:13.2
DNF	DNF	200	Benediktas Vanagas	Aisvydas Paliukėnas	Gurtam Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics	Toyota GR DKR Hilux EVO	T1+	DNF
DNF	DNF	201	João Ramos	Pedro Ré	Toyota Gazoo Racing Caetano Portugal	Toyota Hilux	T1+	DNF
DNF	DNF	203	Aliyyah Koloc	Marcin Pasek	Buggyra ZM Racing	Red-Lined REVO GT-R	T1+	DNF
DNF	DNF	211	Josep Solé	Óscar Bravo	TH-Trucks Team	Century CR6	T1.2	DNF

Challenger

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
1	2	301	Gaël Queralt	Marc Solà	Escuderia Motor Terrassa	Taurus Evo Max	CHG1	5:35:46.3
2	3	300	Dinis Rogeira	Nelson Ramos	767 / PRK Sport Rally Team	Can-Am Maverick X3	CHG1	5:43:40.7
3	16	304	Alexis Romero	Javier Alvarez	Escudería Lanzarote Titerroygatra	Herrator Inzane 901	CHG1	7:17:25.6
DNF	DNF	302	Juan Gasso	Ion Del Vid	Motor Club Sabadell	G Rally OT3	CHG1	DNF
DNF	DNF	303	Luis Clement	Ricardo Ranero	Mi Motorsport	Can-Am Maverick X3	CHG1	DNF

SSV

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
1	4	401	Paulo Rodrigues	Fausto Mota	Rio Seco Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	5:46:03.1
2	5	400	Ruben Rodrigues	Tiago Magalhães	Rio Seco Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	5:50:31.4
3	6	402	Filipe Lopes	Gonçalo Reis	Rio Seco Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	6:03:40.3
4	7	405	Kevin Haran	Daniel Jordão	Kevin Haran	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	6:08:02.4
5	8	404	Federico Mogni	David Nieto	Federación Andaluza de Automovilismo	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	6:16:41.8
6	11	406	Enrique Reyes	Carlos Ruiz	Gedeser XXI	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	6:22:25.4
7	15	407	Philip McVay	Santiago Costa	Escuderia Motor Terrassa	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	6:50:46.5
DNF	DNF	403	Afonso Oliveira	Rui Pita	Santag Racng	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	DNF

Stock

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
1	17	500	Fernando Barreiros	José Sá Pires	Fernando Barreiros	Isuzu D-Max	T2.1	7:46:02.3

CERTT class winners

Class	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
TT	205	Luis Recuenco	Daniel Camara	GPR Sport	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	5:33:02.5
T1	702	Julián Jiménez Barroso	Samuel Martínez Toledano	Julián Jiménez Barroso	Mini All4 Racing	T1.1	7:21:36.3
T2	760	Lluís Rodríguez Boldú	Gerard Ribas Montemayor	Escuderia Lleida	Toyota Land Cruiser VDJ200	T2.1	7:31:38.6
T3	301	Gaël Queralt	Marc Solà	Escuderia Motor Terrassa	Taurus Evo Max	CHG1	5:35:46.3
T4	742	Oscar Maso Ferreres	Xavier Blanco Garcia	Pedregà Team	Can-Am Maverick X3	T4	6:01:35.5
T8	770	Javier Espada Valbuena	Sara Espaad Herraiz	Cuenca Motor 4×4	Toyota Land Cruiser KDJ120	T8	5:23:32.6
Open	782	Juan Lopez Arias	Patricio Perez Avila	Juan Lopez Arias	Yamaha YXZ1000R	SSV	7:26:21.6

Featured image credit: Deividas Daraškevičius