On what could be considered a carbon copy from last year, the 2014 Baja Portalegre 500 will be, once again, a decisive round for the National Bike Off Road Championship with the very same protagonists from 2013: Mário Patrão and António Maio. Last year, Patrão was crown Champion by mear five seconds, however Maio is back to his favorite event and he is all in to avenge the penalty and overall defeat from last season.
Both riders will be arriving at Baja Portalegre 500 tracks with the possibility of taking the crown, with Mário Patrão with a 13 points margin at the start. However, Patrão suffered a heavy crash on the last round and broke his right hand, therefore he might be getting to the Automóvel Club de Portugal event not at 100%. In fact, he was even forced to miss the Rally de Merzouga due the injury and had his presence at Portalegre in doubt since the six week recovery timeframe is larger than the time between Góis and the last round of the season.
O the TT1 and TT3 classes the National Champions are already known, with Sebastien Buhler and Luís Teixeira facing the event with ease.
Third place is enough for Borrego to get the Quad title
Just like it happens on Bikes, the National Quads Championship is still for grabs. The Automóvel Club de Portugal event should be very exciting as far as this competition is concerned, with Roberto Borrego and Ricardo Carvalho fighting it out for the overall national crown.
At the start of Baja Portalegre 500 Carvalho is second on the classification board and a victory might not be enough to ensure the title. The championship leader only needs to be third to retain the crown being, therefore, the favorite for the title. However, Baja Portalegre is always full of surprises and anything can happen on this class in which several other riders might end up helping one of the candidates to the crown.
All is said and done on UTV/Buggy
The only category which arrives at Baja Portalegre 500 will everything settled is UTV/Buggy. Jorge Monteiro is the overall National Champion after winning in Góis, while Bruno Martins has already won the crown amongst Buggies.
This, however, doesn’t mean Portalegre won't be exciting, for there are many riders attending the Automóvel Club de Portugal event. Obviously, Monteiro will be aiming to end the season with another victory, but his competition shouldn't be willing to allow the Polaris rider to shine again. João Lopes is one of those names since he has yet to secure the runner-up spot on the Championship, while the battle for third is comprised of three riders separated by only six points.