As ParaBaja Step by Step prepares for their ten-year anniversary in 2024, they will embark on their biggest schedule yet when they support all six Spanish Cross-Country Rally Championship as well as the World Rally-Raid Championship for the first time.
ParaBaja appears at cross-country rallies as a separate class designed for competitors with reduced mobility or other disabilities. Although times are recorded, results are not published as organisers stress it is a non-competition category that celebrates racers regardless of performance. Thus, identical trophies are handed out to everyone at the end of each rally.
The W2RC will be ParaBaja’s first race of the year when the series returns to the Iberian Peninsula in early April with the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid; while it mainly takes place in Portugal, the third stage will finish in Badajoz, Extremadura. Bajadoz will then host the start of Stage #4, which brings the rally back across the Portuguese/Spanish border to Grândola.
A week later, the CERTT season begins with the Rally TT Jaén Mar de Olivos. Returning to the Spanish championship in 2023 after a three-year hiatus, the race is held in Jaén, a province located in Andalucía. Andalucía previously welcomed the W2RC during its inaugural season in 2022 with the Andalucía Rally.
ParaBaja returns to Extremadura in May for the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura, which is also part of the FIA European Baja Cup. Later in the month, the Murcian city of Lorca welcomes CERTT with the Baja Lorca Ciudad del Sol.
After a month off, July will host two rounds with the Cierzo Rally Ejército de Tierra and Baja España Aragón in Aragón. The latter, also on the FIA World Baja Cup, was the site of ParaBaja’s début in 2014.
The season ends in October with the Rallye TT Cuenca. ParaBaja supported the 2023 edition in a partnership between the Real Federación Española de Automovilismo and Automobile Federation of Ukraine, inviting a team of Ukrainian veterans wounded in the Russian invasion to take part.
The full CERTT slate is another step up after ParaBaja showed up to all but two dates in 2023. The year before, ParaBaja was nominated for the FIA President’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Award.
“For the first time, we will participate in a World Championship event,” reads a statement from ParaBaja Step by Step. “Thank you very much to all parties involved for including us in an event of this calibre. It will be also the first time we are present at all events on the Spanish Cross-Country Rally Championship This year, ParaBaja Step by Step celebrates its tenth anniversary and as you can see, we will start very strong.”
2024 ParaBaja Step by Step schedule
# | Race | Date |
1 | BP Ultimate Rally-Raid | 5–7 April |
2 | Rally TT Jaén Mar de Olivos | 12–14 April |
3 | Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura | 3–5 May |
4 | Baja Lorca Ciudad del Sol | 25/26 May |
5 | Cierzo Rally Ejército de Tierra | 5/6 July |
6 | Baja España Aragón | 26–28 July |
7 | Rallye TT Cuenca | 4/5 October |