Eduard Pons, Akira Miura enjoy maiden triumphs at inaugural Baja Greece

Akira Miura seems to be comfortable in a Toyota Hilux already. Although he entered the Baja Greece with the goal of getting used to his new ride, he ended up winning the premier Ultimate class altogether.

After driving a Toyota Land Cruiser for a decade and winning four Dakar Rallies in the Stock category, Miura joined Overdrive Racing for a two-round FIA World Baja Cup schedule in the Hilux starting at Greece. Overdrive team-mate Yazeed Al-Rajhi was the early favourite as he beat Miura by fourteen seconds in the Prologue, but his brakes failed shortly after starting the first Selective Section; forced to race conservatively, Al-Rajhi ended up being the last finisher in the class. Miura beat Miroslav Zapletal for the Stage #1 win.

Al-Rajhi rebounded to win Stage #2 by seven minutes over Miura, but the previous day’s issue left him nearly an hour behind in the overall.

“I am very happy to have won my first Ultimate class race with the help of the team’s excellent work,” said Miura. His next race in the Hilux will be the Qatar International Baja in early November. “This race is the beginning for me and the OPEN COUNTRY M/T-R, which we developed for this car, and we want to work hard together and improve so that we race even better.”

Miura’s overall time was good for third outright among all FIA entrants, trailing the Challenger caries of Eduard Pons and Lionel Baud. Pons took the overall lead after surviving Stage #1, clearing Miura by fifteen minutes while having a four-minute edge on Baud. To preserve his lead, Pons opted for a safer strategy during the final day to seal the win by thirteen minutes over Baud and seventeen ahead of Miura. Both Challenger drivers enjoyed their best career finishes in a cross-country rally.

João Ferreira, returning to the Challenger category for the first time since the 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship, was just five seconds behind Al-Rajhi in the Prologue but ultimately had a similar race to him. He endured a disastrous Stage #1 that began with his wipers failed shortly after the start, forcing him to stop multiple times to wipe the mud off and even vomit as he was “not feeling really well,” then went off course twenty kilometres before the finish and had to wait for help. Ferreira rebounded to finish second in class in Stage #2 to salvage nineteen points towards the World Baja Cup.

Alexander Toril originally won the SSV class by three and a half minutes until he was disqualified because his Can-Am had an illegal inlet manifold (more bolts installed than allowed) and an aftermarket continuously variable transmission belt. His team explained the manifold was exactly as it appeared when they acquired the car while the belt was purchased from a third party due to a parts shortage at Bombardier Recreational Products, but stressed neither gave them an advantage; a representative from BRP also vouched for them on the latter. Nevertheless, the FIA ruled the burden fell on the team to “ensure that the car was compliant” and upheld the penalty.

Another SSV driver Ibrahim Almuhna was not allowed to start the race after the FIA found the crossbar between the tubes along the co-driver’s side of the roll cage was bent into an ovoid shape. Roll cage damage also knocked out Amerigo Ventura, whose frame was deformed in a Stage #1 crash. Luis Henderson retired after the brake master cylinder broke in the first stage, then a “misunderstanding between the race officials and the crew” resulted in him arriving thirty minutes late and being barred from running the next leg.

The Baja Greece is a new event for 2024, independent of the Rally Greece Off-Road that was on the 2023 World and European Baja Cups.

Overall results

FIA

Ultimate

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle	Class	Time	Margin
1	203	Akira Miura	Jean-Michel Polato	Overdrive Racing	Toyota Hilux Overdrive	T1+	8:07:53.8	Leader
2	201	Miroslav Zapletal	Marek Sýkora	Offroadsport	Ford F-150	T1+	8:08:32.9	+ 39.1
3	200	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Timo Gottschalk	Overdrive Racing	Toyota Hilux Overdrive	T1+	8:43:50.2	+ 35:56.4
DNF	202	Magdalena Zajac	Marcin Pasek	Proxcars TME Rally Team	Toyota Hilux	T1.1	DNF	N/A

Challenger

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle	Time	Margin
1	304	Eduard Pons	Jaume Betriu	Pons Rallysport	Taurus T3 Max	7:50:46.4	Leader
2	303	Lionel Baud	Lucie Baud	GRallyTeam	GRallyTeam OT3	8:03:51.6	+ 13:05.2
3	305	Csaba Miklós	Albert Horn	Csaba Miklós	Taurus T3 Max	8:27:33.6	+ 36:47.2
4	307	Diego Martinez	Sergio Lafuente	South Racing Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick	8:50:59.7	+ 1:00:13.3
5	302	Khalid Aljafla	Andrei Rudnitski	Khalid Aljafla	Can-Am Maverick	9:9:13:22.9	+ 1:22:36.5
6	301	Ghislain de Mévius	Johan Jalet	GRallyTeam	GRallyTeam OT3	10:25:09.0	+ 2:34:22.6
7	300	João Ferreira	Filipe Palmeiro	Can-Am Factory Team	Can-Am Maverick	11:22:55.1	+ 3:32:08.7
DNF	308	Konstantin Cholakov	Ivaylo Zhekov	SC-Networx Racing	Can-Am Maverick	DNF	N/A

SSV

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle	Time	Margin
1	400	Fernando Álvarez	Xavier Panseri	South Racing Can-Am	Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR	88:29:13.9	Leader
2	405	Miguel Toril	Nasser Al-Kuwari	Escudería JMP Racing	Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR	8:44:38.8	+ 15:24.9
3	404	Claude Fournier	Serge Gounon	Claude Fournier	Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR	9:22:38.6	+ 53:24.7
DNF	401	Luis Henderson	Daniel Sposito	Xtremeplus	Polaris RZR Pro R	DNF	N/A
DNF	402	Amerigo Ventura	Erika Mingozzi	Quaddy Racing	Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR	DNF	N/A
DSQ	403	Alexander Toril	Pedro Lopez	Escudería JMP Racing	Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR	DSQ	N/A
DSQ	406	Ibrahim Almuhna	Faisal Alsuwayh	Almuhna Racers	Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR	DSQ	N/A

Points earned

National

TZ1

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle	Class	Time	Margin
1	703	Hector Kimonides	Simos Zervas	Hector Kimonides	Suzuki Jimny	TH.1	10:06:32.6	Leader
2	701	Spyridon Dourakos	Spyridon Pountos	Spyridon Dourakos	Rally Raid UK Desert Warrior	TH.1	10:36:15.4	+ 29:42.8
3	705	Ioannis Vorrias	Athanasios Bajas	Ioannis Vorrias	Mitsubishi Pajero	TH.2	17:43:28.6	+ 7:36:56.0
4	704	Georgios Koutsoumbos	Dmitra Drakou	Georgios Koutsoumbos	Suzuki Vitara	TH.1	18:14:45.5	+ 8:08:12.9
5	702	Andreas Tziallas	Nikos Makarios	Andreas Tziallas	Jeep Grand Cherokee	TH.4	18:33:50.4	+ 8:27:17.8
6	700	Evangelos Bersis	Konstantinos Exarchos	Evangelos Bersis	Toyota Hilux	TH.1	19:27:30.0	+ 9:20:57.4

SSV

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle	Time	Margin
1	803	Israfil Akyuz	Mert Tepe	Israfil Akyuz	Can-Am Maverick	8:59:49.8	Leader
2	805	Taxiarchis Adamopoulos	Theodoros Argyropoulos	Taxiarchis Adamopoulos	Can-Am Maverick	9:01:19.4	+ 1:29.6
3	806	Mohammadzadeh Ghasem	Mahmoodreza Ebadian	Mohammadzadeh Ghasem	Can-Am Maverick	9:44:10.2	+ 44:20.4
4	800	Vladislav Velkov	Nikolay Nikolaev	Vabonti Team	Can-Am Maverick	10:30:19.4	+ 1:30:29.6
5	801	Derin Doganer	Ali Doganer	Derin Doganer	Can-Am Maverick	16:19:06.7	+ 7:19:16.9
6	802	Yagiz Birinci	Ugur Tepe	Yagiz Birinci	Can-Am Maverick	20:27:30.0	+ 11:27:40.2
DNS	804	Ali Cetin	Sabahattin Demir	Ali Cetin	Can-Am Maverick	DNS	N/A