Rally dos Sertões 2018: Experienced Jean Azevedo wins 3rd stage in the moto category as Rookie Gareth Woolridge wins on the car category

Today was finally the day for Gareth Woolridge to set the fastest time on the stage with is the X-Rally/NWM Ford Ranger, leaving all the much more experienced local drivers and potential overall winners in his dust. The South African, who is racing “Sertões Rally” for the first time, needed 2h34m32s to complete the 225 km long special from start to finish.  2m01s seconds behind him finished Cristian Baumgart, also in Ford Ranger. In third position, another 27seconds behind, finished Rafael Cassol with his Giaffone Buggy V8.

Cristian Baumgart is the overall leader in the car category in a Ford Ranger, the second is Sylvio Barros also in Ford Ranger, the third overall is Rafael Cassol with this V8 buggy. Today’s winner is only 16th overall, due to his poor result in first stage.

Jean Azevedo, 3rd stage winner – Photo: Gustavo Epifanio / FOTOP / Vipcomm

In the motorbike category, today’s fastest was Jean Azevedo, in Honda CRF 450X taking only 2h57m32s to reach the finish line.  Just 49s behind finished Tunico Maciel, also in Honda CRF 450X.  Third fastest was Elias Folly, win an KTM EXC-F, 4m54s behind the winner.

In the motorbike overall classification, Tunico Maciel leads the race with 11h21m16s, followed closely by Jean Azevedo only 6m29s down and Ricardo Martins (Yamaha WR 450) who is 13m55s behind the provisional leader.

Despite winning the stage, Jean Azevedo also had his “racing moments”, like the “refreshing bath” in one of today’s river crossings – Photo Magnus Torquato / FOTOP / Vipcomm

In the SxS (SSV / UTV) category, today’s fastest was Henrique Gutierrez in an Yamaha Yoda Spec 2, finishing the stage in 3h05m29s. 1m29s behind him arrived Rodrigo Varela in 2nd place, followed by his father Reinaldo Varela who arrived in 3rd, 1m47s further down the leader.

Meanwhile the overall classification tells us a very different tale, this time with the star being Reinaldo Varela, leading the category, while the other two are far behind. 2nd overall is Enrico Amarante 6m05s down on the lead and 3rd is Denisio Nascimento 7m43s down.  All these three drivers are racing Can-Am X3, making an all “Canadian vehicle” podium.

Finally, in the quad category, George Ximenes won the stage, followed by Wescley Dutra in second place and Giovanni Filho in third.  In the overall, the positions are exactly the same as in today’s stage.

Tomorrow the participants of “Rally dos Sertões” will travel from Luis Eduardo Magalhães city to Barra, with the whole 478km route drawn inside Bahia’s state. The special stage will be 355 km long, promising a lot of difficulties and a very varied terrain.

But the 4th stage will offer a “difficulty” bonus to the participants, as it is a Marathon Stage with no assistance to the vehicles, except the ones the drivers and riders could do by themselves. This means the mechanics will not have access to any racing vehicle to do any repair, and due to this, the participants will have to manage their race carefully and take good care of bikes, cars, SxS and quads. They should keep in mind that the 5th stage is also hard, and they need to have the vehicles in shape if they pretend to reach the finish line of the stage and finally meet their mechanics.