Rally dos Sertões: Marc Coma wins again in Bikes and remains the leadership. / Stagewin for Toyota´s Varela in S3 but Spinelli still leader.

A hard and technique special in the third stage of the 22nd edition of the "Rally dos Sertões" was disputed on Tuesday (26th). Starting from Catalão, the stage finished in Paracatu, which receives the Rally for the first time in history. There were 360.45 km in total, with the largest special edition disputed so far in 2014 (209.86 kilometers).

In bikes, the Spaniard Marc Coma (KTM Red Bull Factory Team) won again. The leader of the FIM World Cross Country Rally and the Rally dos Sertões champion in 2010 closed the special with the time of 02:36:10 hours. The Brazilian Jean Azevedo (Honda Mobil de Rally) was the first runner-up, followed by the Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves (Team Honda HRC).

Overall, Coma - who also won the 1st stage - leads with 05:18:37, 3:19 minutes lead to Gonçalves and 3:34 mins to Azevedo. Thirty-six motorcycles remain in the dispute. "It was a little bigger stage, a hard day, where I was trying to take as much time to recover. It was a good stage, but always difficult to find an appropriate pace," said Coma.

For the experienced Jean Azevedo, who is disputing his 19th Sertões, it was a day with the characteristics of the event. "It was a longer day, with characteristics similar to those of yesterday, with less bumps, curves and slow sections. It was a typical day of Sertões and fun to ride," Azevedo said.

Fourteen quads completed the 3rd stage on Tuesday. The Brazilian Marcelo Medeiros (Taguatur Racing), who had won the prologue in Goiânia, got the victory in the 3rd stage with the time to 02:46:58 hours. With the result, the rider also took the overall leadership with 1:57 minutes advantage for Robert Nahas (RNN Sports), who finished fourth on Tuesday, and 3:45 mins ahead of Polish Rafal Sonik (Sonik Team), who was third in the day.

Twenty UTVs remain in the fight for the title of the Rally dos Sertões. The victory in the 3rd stage was with André Sawaya and Eduardo Costa (S2 Rally / Bike Box), who recorded the time of 02:51:02 hours. The category is also well balanced and not repeated winners in the first stages.

Denisio Casarini and Eduardo Shiga (Casarini Can-Am) were the first runner-up and are in the overall leadership, but with the duo Rodrigo Varela / John Arena (Divine Stove Rally Team) just 30 seconds behind.

On Tuesday´s 3rd stage of the Brazilian "Rally dos Sertoes", the competitors departed in the morning of Catalão, Goiás State, and finished the stage in Paracatu, town of Minas Gerais State that receives the largest rally in Brazil for the first time. There were 360 km in total and a special test of 209.86 km.

In cars, the duo Reinaldo Varela and Gustavo Gugelmin (Overdrive Toyota Hilux) won the stage with the time of 02:34:29 hours. "Today, the car went well, we finished first and we could reduce the difference for the leaders. Now, we have to be prepared for the marathon stage", said the two time World Cross Country Rally Champion Varela, who is overall 7:28 minutes behind the leaders.

Cristian Baumgart and Beco Andreotti (X-Rally Team / NWM Ford Ranger) finished second, with Guilherme Spinelli and Youssef Haddad (Mitsubishi Petrobras) in the third place. Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea (NWM Ford Ranger) were fourth. Spinelli and Youssef remain in the overall leadership, with the advantage of 2:47 minutes to Baumgart and Andreotti.

In the trucks, six-time Rally dos Sertões champion, Edu Piano and the co-drivers Solon Mendes and Antonio Carlos de Sales (Ford F4000 / Território Motorsport) won the third stage in a row. They are in the overall lead, with 13:14 mins advantage for Kenner Garcia / Rafael Dal Bello / Raphael Bettoni (Ford F4000), fourth on the stage today.

On Wednesday (27th), the competitors depart towards São Francisco (Minas Gerais State) in the dispute of the 4th stage of the Rally dos Sertões 2014. There will be 585.30 km in total on the fourth day (135.24 km of initial liaison, 363.85 km of special and 86.21 km of final liaison).

Between Goiânia and Belo Horizonte, Sertões will go through five more cities. Three will host the rally for the first time: Catalão, Paracatu and São Francisco. Caldas Novas and Diamantina complete the route.
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Rally dos Sertões: Gonçalves wins SS2 in Bikes but Coma still overall leader./Mitsubishi´s Spinelli / Haddad the new leader in the cars.

The second day of the 22nd edition of the "Rally dos Sertões" in Brazil, between Caldas Novas and Catalão, began with changes in the special test course. For security reasons, the special had to be reduced and had only 78 km, against 202.23 kilometers planned. Even so, there were many emotions and an exciting dispute.

In bikes, the current world champion and current winner of the Rally do Sertões, the Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves (Honda HRC Team) was the best in the stage and closed the special with the time of 00:45:37 minutes, little more than a minute faster than the Brazilian Jean Azevedo (Honda Mobil de Rally), who was the first runner-up.

The Spaniard Marc Coma (KTM Red Bull Factory Team) finished third, but he is the overall leader, with the time of 02:42:27 hours, with 39 seconds of advantage to Gonçalves. Thirty-six of the 37 bikes disputed the second stage Today.

"Today the special test was very short. I started in the third position and I would like that it was a longer special to try to recover. I think I managed to recover more or less 1:40 minutes the difference for Marc Coma. Now we have five days ahead to try to get a good final position," said Paulo Gonçalves after the stage.

In the quads, thirteen competitors completed the second stage. The current champion, the Brazilian Robert Nahas (RNN Sports), was the winner with a time of 00:51:33 minutes. Tom Rosa (ATV Yamaha) was the first runner-up and Gabriel Varela (Divino Fogão Rally Team) finished third.

The Polish Rafal Sonik (Sonik Team), winner of the first stage, and Marcelo Medeiros (Taguatur Racing), who won the prologue, missed the route and lost time. Medeiros was the fifth in the day and Sonik the seventh. Nahas also took the lead in the overall (03:04:45 hours), with more than five minutes ahead to Medeiros and Sonik.

In the UTV/SSV, the duo Jose Helio Rodrigues and Edmilson de Camargo (Polaris Racing) got the victory in the second stage in UTVs with the time of 00:53:26 mins. Denisio Casarini and Eduardo Shiga (Casarini Can-Am) were second on the day and are leading overall with 03:14:25 hours, just 10 seconds ahead for the duo Rodrigo Varela and John Arena (Divino Fogão Rally Team). 

With the special test reduced for safety reasons, competitors of the "Rally dos Sertões" in Brazil forced the pace in the race of the 2nd stage on Monday (25th), between the cities of Caldas Novas and Catalão. The special had the dispute of 78 km, against 202.23 kilometers planned. 43 of 45 cars disputed the second stage.

In category T1 FIA (cars), the four-time champion Guilherme Spinelli and the co-driver Youssef Haddad accelerated their Mitsubishi ASX Racing and got the victory with a time of 00:48:30 minutes. Cristian Baumgart and Beco Andreotti (NWM Ford Ranger) were first runners up, just ahead of teammates Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea (Ford Ranger).

Reinaldo Varela and Gustavo Gugelmin (Overdrive Toyota Hilux), who were leading, got a penalty (they over speeded in a radar zone), and dropped to fourth place overall.

Spinelli and Haddad took the overall lead from Varela, with the time of 02:40:45 hours, followed by Marcos Baumgart and Cincea. "It was a more enjoyable special test than yesterday, although three quarters of it have been canceled, which is a shame, but it was fast, with nice mounds. Anyway, we forced the pace a little more," said Spinelli.

In T1 Prototypes, the duo João Franciosi / Rafael Capoani (Mitsubishi Petrobras) won and got the overall lead (02:56:50). In Pro Brasil, Mauro Guedes and Neurivan Calado (MS Rally) also won and remained in the overall lead (02:54:44).

In Super Production, Glauber Fontoura and Minae Miyauti (Mitsubishi Ralliart Brazil) still unbeatable after winning the prologue and the first two stages. In Production T2, Vilson Thomas / William Thomas is another duo that won the day's special and is on overall leadership with 03:15:57 hours.

In the trucks, six-time champion of the Rally dos Sertões, Edu Piano and co-drivers Solon Mendes and Antonio Carlos de Sales (Ford F4000) won also the second stage and they are in the trucks leadership, with 00:02:52 minutes of advantage for the trio Kenner Garcia / Rafael dal Bello / Raphael Bettoni (Ford F4000), who was the first runner up Today.

On Tuesday the competitors depart towards Paracatu (Minas Gerais State) in the dispute of the 3rd stage of the Rally dos Sertões 2014. There will be 360.45 km in total on the third day (22.20 km of initial liaison, 209.86 km of special and 128.39 km of final liaison).

Between Goiânia and Belo Horizonte, Sertões will go through five more cities. Three will host the rally for the first time: Catalão, Paracatu and São Francisco. Caldas Novas and Diamantina complete the route. 

Rally dos Sertões: Marc Coma wins SS01 in front of Rodrigues and Goncalves / in car ; Second victory of Overdrive´s Varela/Gugelmin in stage 01.

KTM´s Marc Coma made a solid start in his bid for victory in the Rally dos Sertoes in Brazil on Sunday when he finished fastest in the opening stage of this 2600 km event.

The Spanish rider completed the stage of 216 km, of which 155 km was timed special between Goiania in central Brazil traveling southeast to Caldas Novas in 01:55:28 hours. He finished with a narrow 1:22 minutes ahead of second placed Helder Rodrigues (Honda HRC) of Portugal. Honda-rider Paolo Goncalves, winner of the prologue, was third, two minutes off the leader´s time.

Sunday´s stage required a lot of concentration according to Coma: "It was only quite a short stage but we can say the terrain was quite tricky. You have to pay close attention because there are a lot of animals and fences and other obstacles and also we were flying all the time because there were many jumps. Every time you have to judge how and where to land. I am happy though that we found the good rhythm today," the Spaniard said.

Coma´s official KTM factory teammates were also well placed after the opening stage with Jordi Viladoms of Spain in fourth place 00:02:32 mins off the pace, Briton Sam Sunderland in sixth at 00:04:31 and Ruben Faria finishing seventh only two seconds behind Sunderland. The KTM factory riders compete on the KTM 450 Rally machine.

Coma entered the competition with a six-point lead in the FIM World Cross Countries Rally Championship on Joan Barreda and Goncalves is looking to consolidate that lead this week.

The three times Dakar Rally winner was second in the "Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge", the "Sealine Rally Qatar" and the "Sardegna Rally Race", which has more a characteristic of an enduro event than a classic rally. Factory riders did not compete in the scheduled Round 3 in Egypt (Pharaons Rally) due to the instability in the country at the time. 


The 22nd edition of the Brazilian "Rally dos Sertões", the largest off-road competition in Brazil, started with a strong pace on Sunday (24th) in the 1st stage of the dispute between the towns of Goiânia and Caldas Novas.

There were 216 km in total and a special test with 155 km. Among the cars, at the category T1-FIA, the duo Reinaldo Varela and Gustavo Gugelmin (Overdrive Toyota Hilux) were the winners, with the time of 01:50:17 hours.

Cristian Baumgart and Beco Andreotti (NWM Ford Ranger), who had finished second, were punished with five minutes (by losing a waypoint during the displacement) and dropped to fourth overall. Guilherme Spinelli and Youssef Haddad (Mitsubishi ASX) and Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea (NWM Ford Ranger) are in the second and third place, respectively.

"In Sunday's special test, even a kangaroo would want out, the car was kicking so much," said the winner Rainalo Valera. "But it was very good. It was possible to compare our performance with the other competitors. This is only the beginning and we have to be carefully all the time."

Among the 45 cars in the entry list, 44 started the special test this Sunday and four did not finish within the maximum time for the test. Besides the T1 FIA, cars are also disputed in the categories T1 Prototypes, Pró Brasil, Super Production, Production T2 and Production T2 / TR4.

In the Super Production category, the victory on the day was with the defending champions Glauber Fontoura and Minae Miyauti (Mitsubishi Ralliart Brasil). In Pro in Brazil, Mauro Guedes and Neurivan Calado (MS Rally) were the best. Sylvio de Barros Neto and Eduardo Bampi (Mitsubishi Ralliart Brasil) were the winners in the T1 Prototypes. And the duo Wagner Roncon and Joselito Melo Jr. (Dudu Rally Team) won in the Production T2.

Current champion in the truck category, Edu Piano and the co-drivers Solon Mendes and Antonio Carlos de Sales (Ford Racing F4000) were the fastest on the trucks, with the time 02:24:09 hours - even without working brakes.

The trio Kenner Garcia / Rafael Dal Bello / Raphael Bettoni (Ford F4000) were first runners-up with Felicio Tadeu Bragante / Ricardo de Paula Costa / Paco Corder (Ford F4000) in third, and six-time champion Guido Salvini and co-drivers Flavio Bisi and Fernando Chwaigert (Mercedes Atego) in fourth.

On Monday (25th), the competitors depart towards Catalão in the dispute of the 2nd stage of the Rally dos Sertões 2014. There will be 260.36 km in total on the second day (39.54 km of initial liaison, 202.23 km of special and 18.59 km of final liaison).

Between Goiânia and Belo Horizonte, Sertões will cross five more cities. Three will host the rally for the first time: Catalão, Paracatu and São Francisco. Caldas Novas and Diamantina complete the route.