The Hyundai Santa Fe T1 In BAJA 500

This weekend was held BAJA 500 race in Bucharest, Romania. The BAJA 500 is an off-road race in which the registered teams are 46 from Bulgaria, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.

Hyundai Santa Fe T1 on gravel

For the very first time in the race BAJA 500 was included 500km special stage. In this kind of marathon run aren’t available any service zones and stops. This makes the BAJA 500 more difficult to the racers and their vehicles. The supposed time for this 500km special stage is between 8 and 10 hours.

Hyundai Santa Fe T1 side view

The BAJA 500 has rough terrain with high temperatures and strong wind in the region of the trace. The wind very often removes the marks of the route and this make the orientation very complicated for the drivers.

On April 22, 2016 (Friday) the Bulgarian team Nikolay Gochev and Todor Hristov was first in the qualifying session in UTV class.

The Bulgarian team Nikolay Gochev and Todor Hristov
first in UTV class

The HYUNDAI OFF-ROAD RACING TEAM with Tzvetomir Ivanchev and Ivaylo Niklov (Bulgaria) recorded the fifth place in qualifying stage after three laps on gavel short trace. The qualifying stage determines the start roll in the race.

 

Hyundai Santa Fe T1 in action

The HYUNDAI OFF-ROAD RACING TEAM using a Hyundai Santa Fe T1 with 3.0 L diesel engine which produces 300 hp and 600 Nm. The Hyundai Santa Fe T1 has 5-speed manual transmission. For the suspension are used coil-overs with two dampers of each wheel.

At the moment of publishing of the post, trusted information about how the race finished wasn't received.