Celebrating its 30th Anniversary, the most prestigious national off road event, and one of the most renown worldwide, the Administrative Checks and Scrutineering for the 2017 Baja Portalegre 500 have ended with more than 400 participants going through all the procedures.
From early morning, NERPER was the centre stage, with all participants and teams finishing their preparations to validate their entries.
In the Cars, all eyes were on Ricardo Porém, the leader of the National Off Road Championship with a very comfortable margin over Alexandre Franco. For the Ford Ranger driver the objective is not only reaching his fourth consecutive win at the Baja, but also his first National title.
“I would like to win for the fourth time in a row. We have everything ready. I believe there’s a good result coming. For sure we’ve worked for that,” said Porém.
Regarding the Bikes, the fight between António Maio and Sebastian Buhler will be the centre of attentions. Both can end up as champions as long as one finishes in front of the other. A note also for Luís Oliveira. After having won the last two editions of the Baja Portalegre, the Honda rider has his eyes on a third victory in a row, like António Lopes, Mários Patrão and António Maio.
Among the SSV, Bruno Martins is the favourite to get the title, but João Monteiro has yet a roll to play.
Before the start of the competition itself, the Official Start will take place in downtown Portalegre, at the Tarro Gardens this evening.