The first competitive day started for the G-Force Motorsport team early in the morning with a light and health breakfast. Having proceeded later to the exhibition centre of Pordenone, the crew of Boris Gadasin and Vladimir Demyanenko started their preparations to the administrative checks and scrutineering. And while the driver and the co-driver together with their managers were busy in the HQ, the team's mechanics comfortably settled in the indoor service area, specially provided to us by the Organisers.

During the scrutineering Boris' new car, nominated few minutes ago at the administrative checks as Nissan G-Force, attracted no less attention than the factory-built prototype of Tonnie van Deijne. Moreover, Tonnie himself paid big interest to the car of his major rival - as it turned out he hadn't known before the race that there was such a big and powerful engine now. However, there were not any problems with technics for the G-Force Motorsport crew. Having sorted out all the paper work, the crew put their car in the Parc Ferme and together with teammates went to the only opened restaurant in the area (no wonder, cause at that time the italians had their traditional "siesta" laisure time), where they were accompanied by some other participants, including even the Baja's officials. Really does the motorsport spirit unites people! 

At three o'clock afternoon the crew, gorged by delicious food and warmed by a cosy atmosphere of the Italian restaurant, went in a convoy of other competitors to the official start ceremony in Tagliomento. The time was scheduled so that the crews, having arrived at the venue, could leave their cars on a narrow historic street leading to the podium square, and share with each other emotions before the start. At the same time spectators and fans could closer get acquainted with the competition's future heroes. This opportunity was used to the full extent by journalists, videoshooting the G-Force Motorsport car from all its sides, and children who were taking photos in front of the crew.  

Just immediately after passing the start ramp crews went to the SuperSpecial Stage, organised in the picturesque countryside of Pordenone - around a big horse course, then over a narrow forest track and finally in a dry riverbed. Already by the one third of the short 10km-long stage Boris Gadasin had been ten seconds in front of Tonnie van Deijne. It didn't surprise the team - data loggers on engines showed that the Dutchman's maximum speed on a straight part was 161 km/h while the Russian reached 178 km/h in the same place. However, even having a full desire to put the new car to its limits, the driver played it cool and didn't forget about the right strategy. It's not only psychologically much easier to catch up than to be pursued, it's also down to the Italian Baja's route features that you'd rather not go first on the road. In open places there's no defined track, and it's better to follow someone's driving lines, using a clean path and seeing your rivals' mistakes. Well aware of it, Boris and Vladimir decided to ease off a bit in the second part of the stage - and completed it with 2nd best time. Thus, at least on the first passage through the long special stage tomorrow it will be Tonnie van Deijne who will sweep the road.

Third result on the SSS was shown by the czech driver Miroslav Zapletal, who for some strange reason was listed in the Rally Guide as... the russian! Seems like those 2 years of competing in the "Northern Forest" Baja made the Italians believe as if he was actually from our country. Anyway, lots of competition practice in the first part of the season, including driving on the Russian icy surface, proved valuable for Zapletal - he lost to Boris only 3.6 seconds. But other, this time "real", russians were not as successful as him: best among them was Yaroslav Solovyev who showed ninth time, while Alexander Mironenko could only manage seventeenth.  And while superspecials are treated in rally-raids as some kind of a fan activity, they often become an arena for some big disappointments. You can't win much from such a short distance, but sometimes you can lose everything. For example, the native Giovanni Manfrinato (the only Italian who took part in the first round of the series in Russia and collected some good points) finished only 35th, losing three minutes and a half to the winner. However, most unfortunate was the local favourite Lorenzo Codeca who stopped with a damaged vehicle (probably an oil sump leak). And it means a huge time penalty for tomorrow if he decides to rejoin other competitors.

team manager Igor Chervonny from Pordenone, Italy
Photos by team director Svetlana Shakhova

Interview with Boris Gadasin (translated to English) - it9_gadasinssseng.mp3 514.71 Kb 
Unofficial results of the SSS - it09_sss_unoficial.pdf 57.89 Kb

Schedule for tomorrow (local time, GMT +1):
SS2 - 8:05, SS3 - 11:50, SS4 - 15:35. Parc Ferme in - 19:30
Official web-site of the Baja. On-line tracking. Result on-line.