Literally and figuratively flying

The Rally dos Sertões kicked off for good this Sunday when the competitors left Goiânia heading to Goianésia in a 680-km long day with 306-km stage full of rocks, dense dust, tricky and dangerous places to race a 350-horsepower beast. A hard but rewarding day for the NWM/X Rally Team duo of Cristian Baumgart and Beco Andreotti, who set the fastest time and begins the Sertões where they finished last year: in the lead.

A stage where the NWM-built Ford Rangers V8 showed what they came for. “The organization promised it would be one of the toughest first days in the history of Sertões. Well, they were right. I am glad we made it to the end”, said Cristian Baumgart, who built a lead of 4min28s over Sylvio Barros/Rafael Capoani’s Mini All4.

“Dust, dust, rocks, dust, cliffs, more dust... It was a dangerous day, indeed”, Beco Andreotti highlighted. “We could show the strengh of our equipment with the best result possible”.

This Sunday, though, was not as good for Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea, from the NWM Ford Ranger V8 #303. The duo rolled out of the track on the sixth kilometer of the stage – both were unharmed and walked out of the car by themseves.

“We caught a jump and the car came up in a way we could not control, so we rolled. It is a shame to be out of contention on day one, but the Sertões is unpredictable”, stated Marcos. “We knew it was going to be a long and hard day, but it finished way sooner than we thought”, continued Kleber Cincea.

For Neil Woolridge, a day of mixed feelings. “Happy with Cristian and Beco’s result, and upset for what happened to the other Ranger. We had high expectations for both cars and we are still evaluating the damage – although, for what we could see, it is possible for them to continue. But this decision is up to Marcos and Kleber and we respect whatever they will decide. The cars are built tough and they go really well in those tricky terrains – we had two proves today with the #301 overcoming the difficulties and the #303 having an accident where both driver and co-driver were back unhurt”, he said.

On the second day, this Monday, the competition heads to Santa Terezinha de Goiás on a 248-km marathon stage. “We have to make sure the cars are ok and 200% ready. It will be a long night of work”, Neil finished.

Day 1 Results (top-5): Goiânia (GO) – Goianésia (GO)
1. 301 Cristian Baumgart/Beco Andreotti (FORD NWM) – 4h06min12s48
2. 315 Sylvio de Barros/Rafael Capoani (MINI) – 4h11min05s13
3. 304 Reinaldo Varela/Gustavo Gugelmin (FORD RANGER) – 5h18min53s38
4. 322 Michel Terpins/Maykel Justo (T-REX) – 4h28min28s62
5. 310 Luiz Facco/Humberto Rocha (TRITON) – 4h35min09s43

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