Català
The team from Lleida has controlled almost from start to finish the second round of the Lowland World Cup, not only in its category but also in the overall classification.
The adventure that Eduard Pons started in 2022 in the world of the cross-country discipline has lived today one of the culminating moments. In the second round of the world, based in Argos Orestiko (Greece), the PONS Rallysport team arrived with the main objective of trying to run smoothly to find out the real potential of the Taurus T3 Max. The pass to the Challenger category had not been as desired in the first test held in Saudi Arabia, where Pons and his co-driver Jaume Betriu suffered all kinds of mechanical mishaps.
But the bad dynamic has ended in Greece. After a prologue stage of 6 km timed where the team from Lleida reached the fourth place in the category, less than 1″ away from the podium, things were quickly on the way to the start of the first day of competition. Pons-Betriu completed the first 150 km special stage in second absolute position only 26 seconds behind one of the official teams present in Greece, which already predicted the real possibility of a final podium ahead of more powerful vehicles.
In the repetition of Friday’s loop, Pons put one more gear and achieved the absolute victory with a perfect understanding with Jaume Betriu, vital in the navigation functions. This result led the rider from Lleida to finish the stage leading the absolute classification of a World Cup race for the first time in his career.
For Saturday the objective was clear, not to make any mistakes and to preserve the mechanics of the Taurus in the best possible way in order to round off the success. An excellent work of the BBR Motorsport team, responsible for the maintenance of the Taurus, provided Pons and Betriu with a vehicle in optimal conditions to ensure the result with two more podiums in timed sectors 3 and 4.
After more than 500 kilometers of competition through the narrow roads of the region of Western Macedonia, a mountainous terrain with many slopes, finally the work and dedication during the last months of Eduard Pons and Jaume Betriu gave its fruit with an absolute victory (and of the Challenger category) in the Baja Greece. Despite the enormous physical demands of the race, aggravated by the storms that appeared in the final stages, the outcome was unbeatable.
Very happy with the weekend, Eduard Pons emphasized that “we have been trying very interesting things for a long time that are taking us in the right direction and there is the result, winning not only the category but also the absolute classification of a World Championship event. We have run the last kilometers in very heavy rain, making the feat even more epic. The team has been at the highest level, for them it was also very important to get the overall victory with a Challenger car, the truth is that they have done an impeccable job with the car. Jaume was an excellent co-driver and we both understood the race well, with a regularity that was key to certify the final result”.
The points obtained in Greece put the Lleida tandem at the top of the general classification of the championship, renewing the spirits of all the team members.
