Hungarian Baja: Battle of the Dust Devils
The combination of politics and the weather are enough to spoil
anyone’s day. The Hungarian Baja is renowned for it’s stunning scenery
and hilly tracks that give the stages a 3D effect but the organisers
have been fighting a running battle with the local Green Party who
vehemently oppose the use of the countryside for any vehicle sports.
The only option apart from cancellation was to move the location of
the event to somewhere less environmentally sensitive and so crews
were presented with a hastily reccied route around farmland in the
plains south of Gyor, some 140km north of Budapest. On the map it
looked like a rather uninspiring mass of straights and 90 degree
corners but on the ground it was a route through beautiful countryside
following the edges of fields, along the tops of dykes and through
patches of thick forest. It wasn’t the favourite track of any of the
drivers, but it was certainly the best of a bad situation.
But there was another issue the crews had to contend with… It might
have been perfect weather for picnics but the totally still air after
a week of constant sun meant that straight away Leonid Novitsky was
handed a massive advantage as he had a clear run through the prologue
while everyone else behind had to crawl through the thick cloud of
dust. Fellow Russian Boris Gadasin following two minutes behind
probably drives faster to the shops but in places he couldn’t see
further than a few meters in front…
Friday’s prologue, a little strangely, took place before the
ceremonial start, but when darkness fell the floodlights came out and
against the backdrop of the baroque façade of Gyor’s town hall the
cars were flagged off – through a column of huge flame throwers.
Magic! Saturday’s leg was made up of 4 special stages totalling 209
competitive kilometres with two more on Sunday with a combined length
of 96km, making a full route of 305km.
Everyone outside the X-Raid camp prayed for wind, or at least rain for
the second day but to the chagrin of many drivers Saturday dawned
bright and still but despite having clean air in front Novitsky was
first to run on the slippery grassy sections and immediately dropped
down to 3rd behind Zapletel and Gadasin. But then the pendulum of luck
swung back his way as once the whole field had passed once over the
route the second time the drivers headed through they encountered
clouds of dust again, letting Novitsky away with a big advantage.
In the afternoon though, just to prove that God listens to G-Force’s
prayers, the wind came for the second loop of stages. It started as a
strong breeze but soon whipped up into a full scale storm with gusts
hard enough to snap branches off trees. Unfortunately though Gadasin
couldn’t take advantage of this providence as while the Lord Almighty
was dealing with all the obscuring motes of dust the devil (obviously
in cahoots with the X-Raid team) stole in and messed up Gadasin’s
suspension settings… “We made the anti-roll bars stiffer to make the
car more responsive but unfortunately this made me loose all the
feeling in the handling,” Gadasin shrugged. It dropped him down to 3rd
behind the flying Zapletal, and a minute and a half off the lead. “All
we can do is attack,” he said to reporters as the cars were being
wheeled off to Parc Ferme for the night and on the first stage of the
final day that’s exactly what he did, taking 21 seconds back from the
leader, although he wasn’t too impressed. “I am sure that Novistsky
was driving conservatively so the time looked faster than it was. But
now we have one stage left and we’ll do the same again.”
Nowhere near the fight for the lead but popular among the partisan
crowd was local driver Balázs Szalay in his hulking Opel Antara,
another car running with the amazing sounding 7-litre V8. His race
came to a rather premature end on the final morning when he cut a
corner a little too much and caught a tree with the front wheel. It
was quite a heavy impact (I know because it happened right in front of
me) which broke something in the front axle. He ground to a halt not
much further away.
The same tree had also caught out up and coming driver Vladimir
Vasilev in his G-Force Proto the day before. He might not be the
easiest guy in the service park to interview, but then he has no need
to pander to sponsor’s request or to woo journalists. He has enough in
the bank to pay his own way and has got to the enviable point in life
where he can live his dream. He was taught how to drive on the limit
by his team leader Boris Gadasin but unlike others who are happy
enough just to be behind the wheel he actually managed to win a stage
of the Silk Way rally on only his third ever Rally Raid… and that is
something very special, especially considering that drivers of the
calibre of Stephane Peterhansel and Krzysztof Hołowczyc were in the
list of those he beat. He brought the same raw skill and determination
to the Hungarian Baja although his 2nd and 6th place stage times were
negated by the accident with the tree.
And so the scene was set for the final stage. Novitsky had a lead of
just over a minute over Zapletal but a resurgent Gadasin was on a
mission. But again it was fate that intervened and set the result.
Zapletal went flat out to protect his 2nd place but then a problem
with a propshaft crippled his BMW and put pay to his runner-up
position. And ironically, that which assured Gadasin of second place
also cost him any chance of the win as the time spent in Zapletal’s
dust trail allowed Novitsky to seal the win.
In the end it was a very measured and mature drive by the reigning
Cross-country champion. The X-Raid team leader’s speciality is the
desert marathons and so he can take great pride in beating last year’s
winner Gadasin. Was it a lucky win? Because of the dust that everyone
else had to drive through, yes. Was it deserved? Because of the way he
controlled the whole event without putting a wheel wrong, also yes.
And with another huge desert event, the Pharaohs Rally in the shifting
sands of Egypt coming in a month’s time, few now would bet against
this driver coming into his prime for retaining the title.
1.Leonid Novitsky (Rus) / Andreas Schulz (Ger) BMW X3CC 3′ 53.04
2.Boris Gadasin (Rus) / Dan Schmiel (Rus) G-Force Proto + 3″ 11
3.Miroslav Zapletal (Cz) / Thomas Ourednicek (Cz) BMW X3CC +3″ 54
Fuente: Robb Pritchard
