NORWIT Racing again at the start of the competition in Hungary

Riverside Baja is an event included not only in the FIA ​​CEZ series or the Hungarian championship, but finally also in our domestic, Slovak championship. For this reason, there are a few Slovak competitors at the start.

Among them is the Slovak NORWIT Racing, represented by Martin Benko. His partner, or navigator in Hungary, is Jiří Kalát, just like at the last event, and together they will present themselves on the Riverside Baja tracks with the Taurus T3 Max vehicle.

Not only Martin and Jirka, but also all the other crews have a competition waiting for them, in which they must complete more than three hundred and sixteen kilometers of the track, which also includes three hundred and eight and a half kilometers of measured time. However, all this will not happen until tomorrow, on May 2, 2026. Today (May 1, 2026), all competitors had administrative and technical check-ups, as well as individual tests and setting up of the competition vehicles. The NORWIT Racing Team, together with Martin Benko and Jiří Kalát and the Taurus T3 Max, also completed all of this.

“We managed everything according to plan today, we are accepted into the competition, we have also tested and fine-tuned our Taurus according to the conditions of the local track, and now we still have the driver’s discussion, and of course the competition itself tomorrow. We want to focus on it and give our best performance. I believe that everything will work out and we will be satisfied with our performance at the finish line. It is clear that it will not be an easy competition, thanks to the long-term drought there will be an enormous amount of dust everywhere and it will be really hot,” said Martin Benko before the competition.

The Riversade Baja 2026 itself will start tomorrow morning at half past eight, with two special stages awaiting the competitors, which will certainly not be easy. The finish line of the competition is planned after 4 pm tomorrow evening.

Steering rod slowed down NORWIT Racing in a well-run competition

Tenth place in the FIA ​​CEZ ranking of the Desert Express 300 event belongs to the crew of the Slovak NORWIT Racing Team at the finish. However, everything could have been completely different.

The crew of the Slovak NORWIT Racing Team, Martin Benko – Jiří Kalát, together with the Taurus T3 Max vehicle, figured in a very strong Hungarian competition before the last special stage in an excellent fourth place in the FIA ​​CEZ ranking. However, the last special stage changed everything.

In the last test, we caught a branch that broke our steering rod. Of course, this meant parking the car next to the track and then we thought about how to get to the finish. Somehow we managed to fix it, but looking at our loss, it was clear that there was no point in chasing it anymore, so we continued to the finish slowly. It’s a big shame, we had a great time and could have scored a lot of points in the Central European Zone. But you can’t play with could have. Despite that, it was a great training session, Jirko and I were in the car together, we’re just sorry for the result,” said a sad Martin Benko after the competition.

After this Hungarian adventure, NORWIT Racing and its mechanics are now waiting for a complete vehicle inspection and preparation for training runs. At the beginning of May, the NORWIT Racing Team crew will have another competition in Hungary.