The competition included in the FIA Central European Zone series, but also the Hungarian or Slovak championships, did not go as NORWIT Racing would have liked, but the result was pleasing in the end.
But let’s take a closer look at the event. Riversade Baja 2026 took place just a short distance from the Slovak-Hungarian border during the first weekend of May with the center near the town of Pápoc, located south of the town of Csorna. NORWIT Racing was represented at this competition by the crew of Martin Benko – Jiří Kalát with the Taurus T3 MAX vehicle. The very dry weather and high temperatures covered the tracks and their surroundings with a lot of dust during the competition, which at times really complicated the orientation of the competition crews.
During the opening day of the competition, all participants first went through an administrative and technical briefing and a discussion of the competitors. During the first day, they had the opportunity to test and possibly fine-tune their vehicles during the shakedown. Here, in the case of the Slovak-Czech crew, everything worked as it should. During the second day of the competition, the competition itself was planned, consisting of two demanding special stages. However, in the first of them, the NORWIT Racing crew hesitated slightly, which meant a loss of time. In the second special stage, everything worked as it should again and Martin and Jirka were satisfied with the achieved time.
“Everything would have been great, except that in the first test we managed to do a wheel-roof pirouette at one point, which cost us unnecessary delay. Fortunately, nothing serious happened to our car during this action and so we were able to continue. In the second test, we did nothing wrong and in the end, the finishing position was not that bad, although it could have been significantly better,” Martin Benko assessed at the finish.
And what was the final position of the NORWIT Racing crew? Second place in the Challenger classification and fifth place in the FIA Central European Zone series.
Now the Slovak crew will undergo a complete inspection of the TAURUS T3 MAX vehicle and then prepare for the next competition. When and where it will be, we will of course inform you again.