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The driver from Lleida, co-piloted by Jaume Betriu, demonstrated his speed with the Taurus T3 Max in an extremely challenging event, showing himself to be one of the most competitive drivers in the Challenger category. Pons Rallysport left Poland in third place in the overall standings of their class and will aim to fight for the title in the four remaining rounds of the 2024 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas.
“This race has allowed us to confirm what we thought in the early rounds of the year; we have the pace and speed to fight for the world title. It won’t be easy, but that’s the goal we’ve set, and we will work to the maximum to achieve it.”
Eduard Pons was one of the standout performers at the Baja Poland, the fourth round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, held last weekend in the town of Szczecin. With Jaume Betriu in the right seat of his Taurus T3 Max, the driver from Lleida achieved a commendable second place in the Challenger category, a result that strengthens his third place in the overall championship standings, leaving him just 12 points behind the leader and further reinforcing his candidacy for the world title.
With the experience of having competed in this race during the 2022 edition, Eduard Pons expected the Polish stages to be selective with both the competitors and their machines, and so it was. The event couldn’t have started better for the Catalan’s interests, as he achieved the fastest time in the prologue held on Friday.
“It was surprising to be the fastest at the start; the stage went very well for us, and we achieved a very positive result. Thanks to that, we were able to choose a good starting position for Saturday, which is very important in such narrow and sandy specials like those in Poland,” acknowledged the Pons Rallysport driver.
Saturday’s stage was expected to be crucial, with a double pass on a 152 km timed section that ran through forests and a UN military field. The nature of the course, very technical, was further complicated by a challenging level of navigation due to the many paths and options the competitors encountered throughout the special.
“It was a tough day with a lot of navigation. We have to highlight the role of Jaume Betriu, who did an excellent job. In terms of pace and speed, we started very strong, but we lost some competitiveness as the kilometers went on, a handicap we know from our car. Despite this, we were satisfied with our speed, constantly fighting for podium positions,” added the driver from Lleida.
At the end of Saturday, the Pons/Betriu duo ranked third overall in the Challenger category with their Taurus T3 Max, just over three and a half minutes behind the race leader and only five seconds ahead of their closest rival, the Dutchman Hans Weijs.
With everything still to be decided, the two remaining specials on Sunday’s stage, with just over 50 km at stake, were set to be decisive in the outcome of the Baja Poland, and so they were. Eduard Pons once again demonstrated his ability to compete for significant objectives in the highly competitive Challenger class, facing off against the best teams in the world in this specialty.
In SS3, Pons/Betriu moved up to second place following the issues faced by the Portuguese driver Alexandre Pinto, although they lost two seconds to their direct rival, Weijs. In SS4, the last timed section of the Baja Poland, the Pons Rallysport team set out to defend their second position with just a 3.1-second margin, which they successfully managed. Pons and his co-driver finished second—and sixth overall—in this special.
“In the two stages on Sunday, we pushed very hard. Everything was very close, and we managed to secure a hard-fought second place. It was an almost perfect day, where we were very close to being the fastest of the stage,” explained a very satisfied Eduard Pons.
The second place in the Challenger category and sixth overall in the Baja Poland served to further confirm the upward progression of the driver from Lleida in this highly competitive world championship. With four events completed and four more to go, Eduard Pons is now third in his category, with a strong chance to fight for the title after reducing the gap to the leader to 12 points—there are 160 points in play across the remaining four races.
“This race has allowed us to confirm what we thought in the early rounds of the year; we have the pace and speed to fight for the world title. It won’t be easy, but it’s the goal we’ve set, and we will work to the maximum to achieve it. There are four rounds left, and we will go all out to win them,” concluded Eduard Pons.
The Pons Rallysport team will return to action on the weekend of October 17-19 for the fifth round of the season, the Baja Portalegre 500. The Portuguese race, one of the most historic on the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas calendar, will be the stage where Eduard Pons and Jaume Betriu will begin the second and decisive part of the season.
Challenger Classification – Baja Poland:
- Ghislain De Mevius / Johan Jalet 3h 57’04’’
- Eduard Pons / Jaume Betriu +3’44’’
- Hans Weijs / Dennis Murphy +4’09”
- Alexandre Pinto / Bernardo Oliveira +9’53’’
- Diego Martínez / Sergio Lafuente +32’06’’
FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas – Challenger Classification:
- Diego Martínez 107 points
- Ghislain De Mevius 102 pts.
- Eduard Pons 95 pts.
- Khalid Aljafla 84 pts.
- Joao Dias 70 pts.