Baja Poland: Double victory for the X-raid MINI JCW Rally Plus

25 augustus 2024  

The Baja Poland, the fourth of eight events in the FIA Baja World Cup 2024, was dominated by the MINI JCW Rally Plus! The crew of Joao Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro was the measure of all things in Poland and won convincingly. The two Portuguese were able to win all four special stages and the prologue. Michal Maluszynski and Julita Maluszynska, who also compete in a MINI JCW Rally Plus, secured second place in the overall standings in front of their home crowd.

For Ferreira and Palmeiro, everything went according to plan from the first to the last second. They won the prologue on Friday and remained unbeaten on the following two days. In front of a large crowd, they secured their first victory in the FIA Baja World Cup 2024. Two weeks earlier, they had already won the Hungarian Baja, part of the FIA European Baja Cup.

The Polish couple Maluszynski and Maluszynska can also look back on three successful days. After finishing third in the prologue, they went on to finish the other stages in a sensational second place. With this consistently good performance, they reached second place on the podium.

X-raid will be back in action in around a month at the Baja TT Sharish (19–22 September 2024). This is the fourth of five events in the FIA European Baja Cup.

Quotes from the drivers

Joao Ferreira (MINI JCW Rally Plus):
‘That was a really great Baja for us. We had a lot of fun. We were able to win all the stages and the prologue. This meant that we were able to collect a lot of important points for the World Cup overall standings. I am really happy. Many thanks to X-raid and Filipe for the great work. The MINI was super strong and reliable.’

Overall standings

1. J. Ferreira / F. Palmeiro – MINI JCW Rally Plus – 3h 44m 12s
2. M. Maluszynski / J. Maluszynska – MINI JCW Rally Plus – 3h 47m 05s

3. G. De Mevius / J. Jalet – OT3 – 3h 57m 04s
4. W. Grajek / M. Goleniewski – Toyota – 3h 59m 00s
5. M. Zapletal / M. Sykora – Ford – 4h 00m 45s