Krzysztof Holowczyc headlines FIA European Bajas champions

The FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas was the first of the three FIA Bajas series to conclude their 2023 season last weekend at the Baja Troia Türkiye.

Just a week after completing the larger World Rally-Raid Championship’s season-ending Rallye du Maroc, Krzysztof Hołowczyc traded in his Mini JCW Rally Plus for a BMW X3 and secured his second European Cup. With the championship counting the three best finishes in the five-race season, he made the most of his reps by winning the Rally Greece Off-Road, Hungarian Baja, and in Turkey. The Turkey win came after a bizarre opening day in which every car went the wrong way due to a navigation error, though Hołowczyc credited his co-driver Łukasz Kurzeja with keeping them on track.

“It’s nice to win the European Cup and do a lot of rallies after a hard year,” said Hołowczyc. “This year, we passed. In the end, the goal was achieved, at least in the European Cup. Dakar (Rally) remains. I hope that all these hours spent behind the wheel of different cars will pay off in Dakar.”

The T3 championship ended in a tie between João Dias and Ghislan de Mévius, but the former held the tiebreaker. Although both were tied on wins with two apiece, Dias’ next best finish was a second in Hungary while de Mévius’ highest was third at the Baja TT Sharish Gin. De Mévius’ brother Guillaume, who runs GRallyTeam, opined in September that more than three races should count towards the championship.

Pau Navarro, another driver fresh off competing in Morocco, claimed the T4 title ahead of Fidel Castillo. Amerigo Ventura settled for third after winning the class in Turkey, though 2023 will be remembered more as a season of what-ifs for him: while he won twice in Hungary and Turkey, he crashed out of Spain while leading, lost the Greece victory to disqualification, and retired from Portugal when a silicone tube in his radiator’s cooling system got cut and leaked oil.

“In Greece that’s the hardest one probably because we were leading not the class, but the overall class, we got the trophy, we had the podium ceremony, press conference, but at the end, during final verification, one millimetre took our trophy,” recalled Ventura. “So for us, we missed first place to have the possibility to win the European Cup.

“But we are really happy, and I have to make the congratulations to Pau, that is the new European Champion in T4 class. He is a young driver, very talented, and I think he will have an amazing career, and we are happy to him. He deserves this result.”

The 2024 season, the first under the new FIA European Baja Cup name, once again begins with the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura on 2–4 May.

Final standings

European Cup

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Krzysztof Hołowczyc	104	Leader
2	Ghislain de Mévius	84	– 20
3	Tiago Reis	68	– 36
4	João Ferreira	60	– 44
5	João Dias	59	– 45
6	Fernando Alvarez	40	– 64
7	Amerigo Ventura	39	– 65
8	Michał Małuszyński	34	– 70
9	Pau Navarro	30	– 74
10	Jesús Fuster	29	– 75
11	Petr Hozák	27	– 77
12	Miroslav Zapletal	26	– 78
13	Fidel Castillo	25	– 79
T-14	João Ramos	24	– 80
T-14	İsrafi̇l Akyüz	24	– 80
T-16	Henrique Silva	21	– 83
T-16	Wlodzimierz Grajek	21	– 83
T-16	Csucsu	21	– 83
19	Urvo Männama	19	– 85
20	Benediktas Vanagas	17	– 87
21	Miguel Barbosa	16	– 88
T-22	Alejandro Martins	15	– 89
T-22	Adam Kus	15	– 89
24	Alexandre Pinto	14	– 90
25	Miguel Valero Chulia	13	– 91
26	Armindo Araújo	11	– 93
27	Mert Becce	9	– 95
T-28	Kees Koolen	8	– 96
T-28	Nuno Madeira	8	– 96
T-28	Alessandro Trivini Bellini	8	– 96
T-28	Karel Trneny	8	– 96
T-32	Eylem Tekin Eristi	7	– 97
T-32	Csaba Miklós	7	– 97
T-34	Miguel Casaca	6	– 98
T-34	Oscar Olivas	6	– 98
T-34	Paulo Rodrigues	6	– 98
T-37	Santiago Carnicer	5	– 99
T-37	Marcin Graczyk	5	– 99
T-39	Edgar Condenso	4	– 100
T-39	Manuele Mengozzi	4	– 100
T-39	Carlos Vento Sanchez	4	– 100
T-42	Piotr Otko	3	– 101
T-42	Slawomir Wasiak	3	– 101
T-44	Frantisek Brutovsky	2	– 102
T-44	Filipe Cameirinha	2	– 102

Co-drivers’ standings

Rank	Co-Driver	Points	Margin
1	Łukasz Kurzeja	104	Leader
2	Johan Jalet	84	– 20
3	Valter Cardoso	68	– 36
4	Filipe Palmeiro	60	– 44
5	João Miranda	59	– 45
6	Marek Sýkora	53	– 51
7	Xavier Panseri	40	– 64
8	Mirko Brun	39	– 65
9	Pol Ros	30	– 74
10	Carlos Fernandez	29	– 75
11	Julita Małuszyńska	27	– 77
12	Marc Sola Terradellas	25	– 79
13	Jorge Carvalho	24	– 80
T-13	Mert Tepe	24	– 80
T-15	Henrique Damasio	21	– 83
T-15	Michał Goleniewski	21	– 83
T-15	Márk Mesterházi	21	– 83
18	Risto Lepik	19	– 85
19	Kuldar Sikk	17	– 87
20	Tomas Neves	16	– 88
21	José Marques	15	– 89
22	Fausto Mota	14	– 90
23	Fina Roman Aguilera	13	– 91
24	Luis Ramalho	11	– 93
T-25	Maciej Marton	9	– 95
T-25	Sertaç Tatar	9	– 95
T-27	José Janela	8	– 96
T-27	Václav Pritzl	8	– 96
T-27	Wouter Rosegaar	8	– 96
T-27	Marco Trivini Bellini	8	– 96
T-31	Ejder Tekin Erişti	7	– 97
T-31	Szymon Gospodarczyk	7	– 97
T-31	Albert Horn	7	– 97
T-34	Luis Barrios	6	– 98
T-34	João Luz	6	– 98
T-34	Marcin Pasek	6	– 98
T-34	Miguel Salvador	6	– 98
T-38	Łukasz Łaskawiec	5	– 99
T-38	Julián Villarrubia Garcia	5	– 99
T-40	Erica Bombardini	4	– 100
T-40	Carlos Ruiz Moreno	4	– 100
T-40	Antonio Serrao	4	– 100
T-43	Rafal Jedrys	3	– 101
T-43	Karolina Otko	3	– 101
T-45	Jeremy Dubois	2	– 102
T-45	Petr Hauptmann	2	– 102

Teams’ standings

Rank	Team	Points	Margin
1	Santag Rally	116	Leader
2	GRallyTeam	106	– 10
3	Fofso Power	90	– 26
4	Colegio Mayor Universitario Elías Ahúja	40	– 76
5	FN Speed Team	38	– 78
6	Herrador Competición	35	– 81
7	Quaddy Racing	33	– 83
8	Rally Raid Team Türkiye	31	– 85
T-9	Team Transfredelos	30	– 86
T-9	Akpol Rally Team	30	– 86
11	Speedy Motorsport	28	– 88
T-12	X-raid Mini JCW Team	20	– 96
T-12	X-raid Yamaha Supported Team	20	– 96
T-12	Gedeser XXI S.L.	20	– 96
T-15	OffroadSport	17	– 99
T-15	Rally Raid Estonia	17	– 99
T-15	Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics	17	– 99
18	Bedu Racing	14	– 102
19	PRK Sport Rally Team	11	– 105
T-20	DaklaPack Rallysport	9	– 107
T-20	Workoutland Accr Czech Team	9	– 107
T-20	Ming Racing Sports	9	– 108
23	MMSport	8	– 109
T-24	Marbet Lipsko Rally Team	7	– 109
T-24	Proxcars TME Rally Team	7	– 110
T-26	Overlimit	6	– 110
T-26	Restless Team ukraine	6	– 113
T-28	Coviar Raid Sport	3	– 113
T-28	Escudería JMP Racing	3	– 114
30	Baporo Motorsport	2	– 114

T2 drivers

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Alessandro Trivini Bellini	120	Leader
2	Fernando Barreiras	112	– 8
3	José Gameiro	26	– 94
4	Tomas Gameiro	23	– 97

T3 drivers

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
T-1	João Dias	107	Leader
T-1	Ghislain de Mévius	107	0
3	Fernando Alvarez	82	– 25
4	Adam Kus	64	– 43
5	Jesús Fuster	48	– 59
6	Alexandre Pinto	39	– 68
7	João Ferreira	34	– 73
8	Armindo Araújo	31	– 76
9	Paulo Rodrigues	25	– 82
10	Filipe Cameirinha	22	– 85
T-11	Kees Koolen	19	– 88
T-11	Piotr Otko	19	– 88
T-13	Csaba Miklós	18	– 89
T-13	Miklós Trébitsch	18	– 89
15	Oscar Olivas	15	– 92
T-16	Elvis Borsoi	12	– 95
T-16	Jordi Segura	12	– 95
18	Gábor Grigalek	11	– 96
T-19	Nicola Collodel	8	– 99
T-19	Nuno Rogerio	8	– 99
T-19	Daniel Silva	8	– 99
T-22	Miguel Barbas	7	– 100
T-22	Eduardo Eslava	7	– 100
T-22	Vicor Grasa	7	– 100
T-25	Rui Carneiro	6	– 101
T-25	Nelson Jose Martinho	6	– 101
27	John Knight	5	– 102
28	Giancarlo Mammoli	3	– 104
29	Hugo Manuel Cardoso	2	– 105

T4 standings

Drivers’ standings

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Pau Navarro	98	Leader
2	Fidel Castillo	89	– 9
3	Amerigo Ventura	80	– 18
4	Miguel Valero Chulia	76	– 22
5	Israfil Akyuz	65	– 33
6	Artem Pomkan	46	– 52
7	Marcin Graczyk	41	– 57
8	Rui Farinha	38	– 60
9	Carlos Vento Sanchez	37	– 61
10	Mert Becce	28	– 70
11	Grzegorz Brochocki	16	– 82
T-12	Pedro Ruivo	15	– 83
T-12	Miguel Toril	15	– 83
14	Balázs Molnár	14	– 84
15	Eylem Tekin Eristi	13	– 85
16	Francisco Santos	11	– 87
T-17	Paulo Rodrigues	9	– 89
T-17	Yagiz Birinci	9	– 89
19	João Manuel Carneiro	8	– 90
20	Filipe Barreiros	7	– 91

Team standings

Rank	Team	Points	Margin
1	Rally Raid Team Turkiye	83	Leader
2	FN Speed Team	80	– 3
3	Colegio Mayor Universitario Elías Ahúja	75	– 8
4	Gedeser XXI S.L.	67	– 16
5	Santag Racing	61	– 22
6	Quaddy Racing	60	– 23
7	Restless Team Ukraine	49	– 34
8	Baporo Motorsport	15	– 68
9	Overlimit	15	– 68
10	M1 Motorsport	13	– 70