Garamvolgyi: “Competition area is mostly military territory, so anyone who breaks the rules is risking the future of Hungarian Baja”

With the Hungarian Baja set to celebrate its twenty-first year in August, race organiser Zoltán Garamvölgyi wants to make something more “varied and special”. Much of the race takes place in the town of Várpalota, particularly at the Hungarian Defence Forces Bakony Combat Training Centre.

Located right by the Bakony mountain range, Bakony CTC is used by the HDF and Hungary’s NATO allies who frequently partake in joint exercises that include armoured warfare and paratrooper operations. It boasts the largest military shooting range and training area in Central Europe, spanning 251 square kilometres across three fields dubbed “A”, “B”, and “C”. “A” field, which is 87 km2 in size, is typically used for non-live fire exercises while “B” (100 km2) and “C” (64 km2) are both for battalion- and company-level practices and artillery impact areas. These elements mean competitors race across hard and rocky, yet technical, terrain that is burnt out from artillery strikes and past destroyed vehicles like tanks.

Garamvölgyi hopes to put those 251 km2 to good use. The 2024 route spans 550 kilometres, 410 of which are timed Selective Sections with 250 km on the first stage and 160 km the next. The bulk of it consists of a loop that was last used in 2009. Thury Castle in Várpalota serves as the rally’s main hub.

“We want to recapture areas that were part of the programme in the early days. The shooting range is one such area that we can join hands to use—a huge thank you to the Ministry of Defence,” Garamvölgyi stated. “We can provide a special route for the riders, but we still can’t compete with the Portuguese and Spanish organisers in terms of lines, but perhaps that’s not our aim. We have been doing it to the best of our ability for more than two decades, and we can be justifiably proud of that, and we will continue to do so.

“It is still very important to draw attention to the fact that the public and the press may only enter the areas and points designated by us, in compliance with the security rules. The competition area is mostly military territory, so anyone who breaks the rules is risking the future of the Hungarian Baja. Breaking the rules can have very serious consequences either for the competition or for those who are caught, whether by the police, the military, or our security people.”

Cross-country rallies on military grounds are not unheard of, provided the owners sign off on it of course. In fact, Hungary is not the only such race on either the FIA European Baja Cup or FIM Bajas World Cup calendars. The Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura in May, which opened the 2024 European Cup and was the second date for the FIM World Cup, took place at the Spanish Army’s Base General Menacho de Bótoa that is mainly used for tanks; this led to an especially bumpy course that combined with increased rainfall to produce a high attrition rate. Poland, a historically close friend of Hungary until 2022 and burgeoning military power in Europe, features the independent Rallye Breslau and Baja Poland of the FIA World Baja Cup on the military training polygon at Drawsko Pomorskie; Breslau also runs through the army base at Żagań. The Polish training grounds, on the other hand, are tight and twisty with plenty of sand and water crossings.

Scheduled for 8–11 August, the Hungarian Baja is the third round of the FIA European Baja Cup, fourth on the FIM Bajas World Cup, and fifth for the national Hungarian Cross-Country Rally Championship. Besides those vying for points, the race will mark the competition début of Ford and M-Sport’s new Raptor T1+ with 2013 and 2018 winner Nani Roma.

“I’m very proud that M-Sport, who gained their wings in off-road rallying, is preparing a very strong Ford team for the 2025 Dakar (Rally),” continued Garamvölgyi. “We will be the front of this preparation, where the Raptor T1+ will be presented, with none other than Nani Roma. We are very fond of the two-time Dakar winner, who has participated in the Hungarian race several times.”

Krzysztof Hołowczyc and Štefan Svitko respectively won the 2023 edition in FIA and FIM, the former going on to win that year’s European Cup title.