Gareth Woolridge wins stage 3 in the Rally dos Sertões
Gareth Woolridge is the winner of stage 3 in the Rally dos Sertões. The South-African driver was the fastest in the 255-km special between the cities of Posse, in Goiás, and Luis Eduardo Magalhães, in Bahia. Alongside Brazilian co-driver Marcelo Haseyama in the NWM/X Rally-built Ford Ranger V8 4x4 in the T1 Brazil class, the young Woolridge set a time of 2h34min32s, two minutes faster than the overall leader and reigning champion Cristian Baumgart – who races a T1 FIA NWM-built Ford Ranger V8 4x4 with X Rally Team.
“Fantastic day today, I didn’t feel in the first half of the stage our pace was that fast, but we were steady and only made one little navigation mistake, very difficult on these roads and they are hard to read and change direction unpredictably; they are also super slippery with lots of small rocks”, Gareth described.
Then, the South-African began to feel more and more comfortable. “On the second half of the stage I pushed a bit more as the terrain suited me more, it resembled Botswana with sandy roads and I could see more as there wasn’t as much vegetation”, Woolridge said.
“The last 60 kilometers were very fast, at one point we sat at 185 km/h for four minutes through the cotton farms. Very fast until the finish. Tomorrow we will try for more of the same”, he highlighted.
With the result, Gareth climbed from 21st in the general classification to 16th, as he faced an issue with the suspension after hitting a bump on the first day and could not finish the stage.
The three other cars of the joint effort between Neil Woolridge Motorsports and X Rally Team finished the day in positions four, five and six with Sylvio de Barros, Marcos Baumgart and Gunter Hinkelmann.
This Wednesday, the competitors face the marathon stage. There will be 478 kilometers between Luís Eduardo Magalhães and Barra, where the cars cannot receive any external assistance from the teams. Only drivers and co-drivers are allowed to make any maintainance on their machines in a limited time. The stage is 355-kilomters long.
Top-6 Result: Day 3
POSSES (GO) – LUÍS EDUARDO MAGALHÃES (BA)
1. 319 Gareth Woolridge/Marcelo Haseyama (Ford Ranger) – 2:34:32
2. 301 Cristian Baumgart/Beco Andreotti (Ford Ranger) – 2:36:33
3. 325 Rafael Cassol/Lelio Junior (Giaffone Buggy) – 2:37:00
4. 315 Sylvio de Barros/Rafael Capoani (Ford Ranger) – 2:38:04
5. 303 Marcos Baumgart/Kleber Cincea (Ford Ranger) – 2:38:10
6. 348 Gunter Hinkelmann/Fábio Pedroso (Ford Ranger) – 2:42:17
NWM/X Rally Team Cars – General Classification
1. Cristian Baumgart/Beco Andreotti – 7:46:20
2. Sylvio de Barros/Rafael Capoani – a 7:40
4. Marcos Baumgart/Kleber Cincea – a 19:20
16. Gareth Woolridge/Marcelo Haseyama – a 2:34:36
31. Gunter Hinkelmann/Fábio Pedroso – a 7:45:04
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