Skip to main content
Uncategorized

Nani Roma & Gerard Farrés winners of the Baja España – Aragón 2009

Full house for the Repsol riders and drivers in Zaragoza, as Nani Roma, at the wheel of his BMW X3CC and Gerard Farrés & Jordi Viladoms, riding their KTM 530 EXC-R motorbikes, got an unbeatable result. On today`s first special Roma snatched the lead from Stéphane Peterhansel and stayed in the lead to the end. Farrés and Viladoms imposed themselves on the race and finished first and second.
The day began with Nani Roma 27 seconds behind Stéphane Peterhansel, so the Repsol driver attacked from the very first kilometre and bit by bit the Spaniard cut the gap. And when he was just 15 seconds behind the Frenchman he had a puncture and this tipped the scales in Roma`s favour as he won the first special; a gap of 3 minutes separating him from Campos, 4’37 from Misslin and 9 minutes 37 seconds from Peterhansel.On the second special the Spaniard defended his lead and finished 3rd, 5 minutes 7 seconds ahead of the Frenchman. With this result the Repsol driver gets his first victory with BMW and in just his second participation in his new German car, at the same time he got his 6th triumph in the Baja, his second in a four-wheeled vehicle.Gerard Farrés riding his KTM won today`s first special after starting the day in the lead, and was 2nd on the second special. The Repsol rider had a tough battle with Viladoms right to the end, he had to maintain a high pace which he only lowered to make sure he got his second triumph in this event in Aragon, a rally that he had never won before. It was a perfect result for the Repsol KTM Team, who saw Jordi Viladoms finish second behind Farrés.Nani Roma,I am very pleased with this victory, because it is the 6th I have won here with the Repsol BMW team, and in just my second race with BMW. The Baja is my favourite after the Dakar, because of the route, the organisation and because of the affection that the public has always given me. Today I was hungry to win and I soon cut the gap on Peterhansel, but with so much dust in the air it was very difficult to overtake. Luckily for me he had a puncture and that left the race in my hands. We have all had a few problems with the brakes but I took good care of them and I did not have any unpleasant surprises. On the second stage I started out comfortably again, driving as I like but my co-driver and the team told me to slow down to make sure we got the result we wanted, because after all the important thing is to win.Gerard Farrés,I am really really pleased and the pressure is off me now. Everything went well and the team showed that it is at a very high level. On the first special I tried to put the pressure on to make sure I won and on the second I tried to take care of the engine right to the end. I was following the instructions given to me by Marc Coma, who has been my sort of manager, whilst Jordi Durán helped Viladoms, and the truth is that this worked out really well because he gave me the right advice whenever I needed some. Even with the blackboard, as well as the time differences, he reminded me to concentrate and everything turned out fine.Jordi Viladoms,It was very difficult to turn things around today, although I tried to right to the end. In the morning I had to catch Gerard [Farrés] and overtake him if I wanted to win, but there was a lot of dust and very risky, because in addition he was always riding very fast. I waited for him to make a mistake and I won the second special but in the end I was second overall. In any case I am pleased because on every special I got better, and even more so with the great result that we have got as a team. There are some things that I have to work on but I think that we did a very good race.

Leave a Reply