João Ferreira is living the life in September. A week after winning the Baja Aragón, he scored his fifth straight overall victory at the Baja TT Sharish Gin.

Aragón had been postponed from July to September because of wildfires in Spain, just a week before Sharish Gin. The short turnaround was no problem since the latter is held in neighboring Portugal, in the region of Alentejo. Ferreira, who has won the Sharish Gin’s overall every year since 2022, led a Portuguese overall podium sweep ahead of Gonçalo Guerreiro and João Ramos.

While both are Iberian countries with similar profiles, Portugal offers more narrower tracks and forest routes than Spain. This meant the less power UTVs in Challenger and SSV could hang with Ultimate cars, and Guerreiro’s Polaris RZR thereby kept pace with Ferreira and Ramos’ Toyota Hiluxes. Although T1+ went 1–2–3 in the 2025 race, João Dias was third behind Ferreira and Oliveira’s Minis in his G Rally OT3.

Guerreiro started on a sour note when the left-side wheels got stuck against a fence during the Prologue, dropping him to dead last with the maximum time of 15 minutes. Despite starting at the back, he rebounded by being the only driver to set a time below one hour in SS1 at 59 minutes and 33 seconds. The trio of Joãos followed with Dias’ own RZR in second, then Ferreira and Ramos. Ferreira and Ramos struck back in SS2A and 2B to conclude the day first and second.

On the second day, Ferreira held off Guerreiro by 24 seconds to win Stage 2. He was 8:25 ahead of Guerreiro and had nine-and-a-half minutes on Ramos.

“The car was perfect all the weekend, no problems at all,” Ferreira told Cross-Country Rally News. “The terrain was super, super, super tough and demanding, but we had no problems. Filipe (Palmeiro) also did a very good job on the navigation side because we were opening the road so it was tricky.

“Overall, it was an amazing weekend. Now, we have one day to rest, and on Tuesday we go to Morocco for another round of the W2RC.”

Alexandre and Mário Franco, Edgar and Tiago Reis, Daniel Silva, and Paul Spierings were each fined €500 because they did not submit their FIA technical passports in time when the entry list was published on September 14. It wasn’t the only action taken by FIA chief steward Wilhelm Singer and his team—which also included FIA steward Wolfgang Gastorfer and ASN steward Paulo Laginha—took over the weekend as Paulo Rodrigues was disqualified too.

Rodrigues was on his way to the start of SS2A when he noticed his HANS device was missing, so he went back to the service park at Parque de Feiras e Exposições in Reguengos and spent about 15 minutes there retrieving it. Officially, this was deemed a violation of breaking from the prescribed itinerary for external assistance, thereby resulting in disqualification.

FIA results

Ultimate

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	1	207	João Ferreira	Filipe Palmeiro	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	6:42:35.6	Leader
2	3	206	João Ramos	Jorge Carvalho	Toyota Gazoo Racing Caetano Portugal	Toyota Hilux Evo	T1+	6:52:06.5	+ 9:30.9
3	9	202	Mariusz Wiatr	Łukasz Łaskawiec	Pufy Racing	Ford F150 Evo	T1+	7:01:50.9	+ 19:15.3
4	19	205	José Rogeira	Paulo Marques	767/PRK Sport Rally Team	Ford Ranger	T1.1	7:25:15.5	+ 42:39.9
5	20	204	Magdalena Zając	Błażej Czekan	Proxcars TME Rally Team	Toyota Hilux	T1+	7:25:32.4	+ 42:56.8
6	21	211	Johannes Senders	Yvet Senders	Johannes Senders	Toyota Hilux	T1.1	7:28:00.5	+ 45:24.9
7	22	203	Maria Gameiro	Rosas Romero	X-raid Team	Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0d	T1+	7:28:13.6	+ 45:38.0
8	23	212	Hugo Raposo	Rafael Lutas	Prolama Competição	Nissan Proto	T1.1	7:28:33.3	+ 45:57.7
DNF	DNF	208	Alejandro Martins	João Rato	Alejandro Martins	Mini John Cooper Works Rally 3.0d	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	209	Pim Klaassen	Joel Lutas	DaklaPack Rallysport	DKR EVO GT-R	T1+	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	210	Céar Sequeira	Bruno Neves	Céar Sequeira	Mercedes-Benz SLC350	T1.1	DNF	N/A

Challenger

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	5	302	Tiago Reis	Nuno Morais	Team Transfradelos	MMP T3	6:57:34.2	Leader
2	7	304	Paul Spierings	Kala Senders	Rebellion Spierings	Taurus Evo Max	6:59:08.1	+ 1:33.9
3	11	307	Edgar Reis	Fábio Ribeiro	Team Transfradelos	MMP T3	7:08:08.9	+ 10:34.7
4	16	311	Alexandre Franco	Ricardo Batista	Alexandre Franco	Kaizen S1	7:20:06.1	+ 22:31.9
5	17	301	Marek Kubiczek	Dominik Ragiel	Kubiczek Rally Team	Taurus Evo Max	7:23:45.4	+ 26:11.2
6	24	313	Nuno Faria	João Martins	Benimoto Racing	Can-Am Maverick X3	7:44:00.2	+ 46:26.0
7	25	314	Edgar Condenso	Nuno Silva	Team Consilcar	Kaizen S1	8:27:36.1	+ 1:30:01.9
8	27	306	Henk Klaassen	Sasha Siripanyavuthi	DaklaPack Rallysport	Taurus T3 Max	8:32:11.1	+ 1:34:36.9
9	29	305	Daniel Silva	Gonçalo Magalhães	Team Transfradelos	MMP T3	9:50:57.7	+ 2:53:23.5
10	30	308	Paul Schmidt	Jeannette Kvick	X-raid Team	X-raid Fenic	11:06:53.0	+ 4:09:18.8
11	31	312	Tiago Patrocinio	Paulo Fiúza	Rio Seco Racing	Can-Am Maverick X3	14:17:19.6	+ 7:19:45.4
12	33	300	Dinis Rogeira	Nelson Ramos	767/PRK Sport Rally Team	Can-Am Maverick X3	16:58:56.8	+ 10:01:22.6
DNF	DNF	303	Mário Franco	João Miranda	Overland X Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick X3	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	309	Nuno Matos	Ricardo Claro	Nuno Matos Race Team	Volkswagen Amarok	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	310	Luis Carneiro	Hugo Magalhães	Luis Carneiro	MMP T3	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	315	Pedro Dias da Silva	José Janela	767/PRK Sport Rally Team	Viking Challenger	DNF	N/A

SSV

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	2	403	Gonçalo Guerreiro	Pablo Moreno	BP Ultimate Adventure Team	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	6:51:00.7	Leader
2	4	402	Luís Cidade	Valter Cardoso	South Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	6:54:48.1	+ 3:47.4
3	6	404	Miguel Barbosa	Carlos Mendes	BP Ultimate Adventure Team	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	6:57:55.1	+ 6:54.4
4	8	406	João Dias	Nuno Sousa	Santag Racing	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	6:59:49.3	+ 8:48.6
5	10	401	Rúben Rodrigues	Rui Paulo	Rio Seco Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	7:03:50.1	+ 12:49.4
6	12	405	Herlander Araújo	Tiago Magalhães	Herlander Araújo	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	7:08:50.1	+ 17:53.0
7	13	411	Pedro Carvalho	Romeu Martins	Santag Racing	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	7:08:53.7	+ 18:13.7
8	14	408	Filipe Lopes	Gonçalo Reis	Rio Seco Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	7:09:14.4	+ 22:36.3
9	15	409	Daniel Pereira	Vasco Franco	Daniel Pereira	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	7:15:46.7	+ 24:46.0
10	18	410	Filipe Cameirinha	Jérémy Dubois	Benimoto Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	7:23:58.7	+ 32:58.0
11	32	407	Mário Ferreira	Miguel Silva	Santag Racing	Polaris RZR Pro R	T4	14:22:31.8	+ 7:31:31.1
DNF	DNF	412	João Lourenço	David Monteiro	Benimoto Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	DNF	N/A
DSQ	DSQ	400	Paulo Rodrigues	Fausto Mota	Rio Seco Racing	Can-Am Maverick R	SSV1	DSQ	N/A

Stock

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Vehicle	Total Time	Margin
1	26	501	Fernando Barreiros	José Marques	Fernando Barreiros	Isuzu D-Max	8:31:51.2	Leader
2	28	500	Andrei Halabarodzka	Aleksei Ignatov	Andrei Halabarodzka	Toyota Land Cruiser	8:45:02.8	+ 13:11.6

National class winners

FPAK

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Vehicle	Total Time
T1+	DNF		No Finishers			DNF
T1	2	701	Sérgio Matos	Sebastião Dominguez	Toyota Hilux	7:12:47.1
T2	8	707	Américo Santos	Jorge Monteiro	Nissan Pathfinder S1	7:48:02.0
T3	1	753	Alexandre Cardoso	Jaime Cortes	Kaizen S1	7:09:33.8
T8	5	712	Richard Timmerman	Hendrik van Geest	Toyota Hilux	7:34:24.8

Moto

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Vehicle	Total Time
TT1	3	2	Gustavo Gaudêncio	Bianchi Prata Offroad Center	Honda CRF250RX	5:57:24.5
TT2	5	75	Nelson Cunha	Racing Team 25	Kawasaki KX450X	6:05:41.0
TT3	1	1	Micael Simão	Santag Racing	KTM 450 EXC-F	5:54:45.6
Trail	9	30	António Maio	Yamaha Portugal	Yamaha Ténéré 700	6:09:36.6
Women	29	1	Joanna Modrzewska	Joanna Modrzewska	Triumph TF 450-E	6:57:47.2
Electric	33	17	Pedro Bianchi Prata	Bianchi Prata Offroad Center	Strix ET02	9:16:30.5

Other

Class	Number	Rider	Team	Vehicle	Total Time
Hobby	904	António Veiga	António Veiga	Honda CRF450RX	6:33:51.2
Quad	101	Tomás Paulo	An#123 Motogardunha Alambique De Ouro Rt Seguros	Yamaha YFZ450R	6:06:29.6
SSV	803	Roberto Borrego Domingos Cunha	Santag Racing	Polaris RZR Pro R	5:51:31.1

Featured image credit: Adois Comunicação