Irish Motor Sports News – MINI ready for Italian Baja 2018 – Rd6 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup.

MINI ready for Italian Baja 2018 – Rd6 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup.

Jun 21, 2018

• Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski aims for repeat success at Italian Baja following his first ever win for MINI at last year’s event.

• Przygonski in a MINI John Cooper Works Rally arrives at Italian Baja 2018 as leader of the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup.

• Amos Eugenio and co-driver Filipe Palmeiro to crew second MINI at Italian Baja 2018.

The 2018 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup has arrived in Europe for Italian Baja 2018. This year’s event is extra special to the organising team as they celebrate the 25^th anniversary of this prestigious race, which combines the sixth round of the FIA World Cup and the home country’s national rally Campionato Italiano. Italian Baja 2018 will cover a total distance of 707.59km, of which 443.49km make up the timed special stages.

For Italian Baja 2018, Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski (POL) and co-driver Tom Colsoul (BEL) will again be at the controls of a MINI John Cooper Works Rally. Not only will this MINI Family pairing be looking to gain additional points in order to maintain their lead of the 2018 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup, they will also be hoping to replicate their win of Italian Baja 2017 – the scene of Przygonski’s first ever race win for MINI Motorsport and motorsport partner X-raid.

Also competing at Italian Baja 2018 will be the MINI Family crew of Eugenio Amos (ITA) and co-driver Filipe Palmeiro (POR). Their first outing together in a MINI ALL4 Racing was at Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2018 (Round 3). At that round, their car was unfortunately delayed at customs, meaning there was no time for Amos to get accustomed to the car or take part in pre-race shakedown tests. To finish 18^th overall was indeed a welcome result.

Race action from Italian Baja 2018 will commence on Friday 22^nd June with a Super Special Stage of 8.12km. There then follows Stages 1-3 on the Saturday, with Stages 4-5 and the end of race ceremony on Sunday 24^th June.

Jakub ‘Kuba’ Przygonski: “This will be an important race for us because we are leading the FIA World Cup classification and we need to gain more and more points. Last year’s Baja Italy was good for us because we won… so yes, we enjoy competing in Italy. We will try to push; of course. The fight this year is really nice between the top leaders. Italian Baja is not an easy race because it is like a super sprint race rather than a long distance desert race. We need to be focused every second because a mistake can easily be made to lose many seconds.”

FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup 2018 calendar

	Event	Date
1	Baja Russia	16-18 February
2	Dubai International Baja	9-10 March
3	Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge	24-29 March
4	Qatar Cross-Country Rally	17-22 April
5	Rally Kazakhstan	27 May-2 June
6	Italian Baja	21-24 June
7	Baja Spain	20-22 July
8	Hungarian Baja	9-12 August
9	Baja Poland	30 August-2 Sept
10	Rallye Oilibya du Maroc	3-9 October
11	Baja Portalegre 500	25-27 October

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