Slovak Martin Benko has had a successful XXII.Hungarian Baja 2025 event, finishing in fourth place in the CHG T3.1 category, as well as ninth overall in the FIA European Baja Cup series.
“Before the start of the Hungarian Baja, we had two testing days in Poland, where we tried to fine-tune the buggy’s chassis. However, after the start, we quickly discovered that the buggy was too hard and we were more in the air than on the road. This is how we completed the first stage of the event, while of course we also had to deal with several really big obstacles due to the hard setup,” began Martin Benko from Poprad.
Despite all this, Martin and his co-driver Jiří Kalát managed to drive the sixth fastest time in the Prologue and were even faster in the first real special stage, taking fourth place.
“We mainly tried not to make any big mistakes and not to crash. Our goal was not to ride at the top, but to complete the entire competition and reach the finish line. If we add to that the literally tropical temperatures, a lot of dust and a malfunctioning GPS, it was a really strenuous first stage,” Martin explained on Friday evening.
The whole competition was basically still ahead of them, since after a kind of taster session on Friday, the organizer included three really strenuous tests for Saturday, each of which measured more than one hundred and thirty kilometers. In them, Martin and Jirka always finished in fourth place in the CHG T3.1 category. However, it was not without problems again.
“I have to say that at one point I was already thinking about giving up. The reason now was the clutch, which decided not to cooperate with us any longer. I didn’t need it in the special stage, the starts and especially the city runs were worse, when we had to stand still at traffic lights. I always had to turn off the engine and then actually move through the starter and the engaged unit. To make matters worse, kilometer after kilometer the power was leaving us, unfortunately we only found out the cause in the last special stage, where we diagnosed a turbo failure that had been working at only half power all weekend. Fortunately, the buggy withstood even this rough treatment, there were quite enough failures for one weekend, the next one did not occur and so we made it to the finish line,” announced Martin Benko after reaching the finish line, in which they were in fourth place in the CHG T3.1 category in the final ranking, as well as ninth overall in the FIA European Baja Cup series.
Martin started with his co-driver Jirko Kalát for the first time, so of course we were interested in how their cooperation in the buggy worked.
“Jirko has probably done fifty long-distance motorcycle rallies, so he is very good at navigation. However, a motorbike and a car are different things and it must be said that even though Jirko was only in the car for three days, he worked like an absolute professional. Everything in the car worked perfectly and I thank him for his excellent service. In addition to the buggy, we also tested our new truck and tent at the Hungarian Baja, with which we are preparing for the World Championship in Morocco, where we are leaving at the end of September. I am glad that we started in Hungary, we managed to fine-tune a few things, I am extremely satisfied with how the situation is developing and now I expect great progress. But I don’t want to overtake yet, we will be wiser after the Rallye du Maroc 2025. Of course, my big thanks go to all the partners of the Norwit Racing Team, mechanics, co-driver, technical support of Jirko Kalábek, Marek Sýkor, without whom I probably wouldn’t be where I am today and of course also to our families for their great support. patience,” concluded Martin Benko.
As Martin already indicated, Norwit Racing now faces major technical factory improvements with the support of Taurus and European tests, and at the end of September, moving to Morocco, which we will of course inform you about again.