Portuguese Rally News

[tonirali]

Some thoughts on Casinos do Algarve:

- Kris Meeke and James Fulton completely destroying the field, which continues to ruffle a lot of feather within the Portuguese rallying community, apparently? It seems stupid to blame someone for being quicker than the rest, and the theories flung about are ridiculous but nothing new.

- Armindo Araújo/Luís Ramalho (who didn't take part in last year's first running of this gravel format) and Ricardo Teodósio/José Teixeira closed the podium after some tasty fights. They couldn't quite match Kris and James's pace (notice the +4.7 drop on a 1.38km superspecial), but they were far from slow and showed remarkable consistency where others made mistakes/got caught out by their own car's fragility. The top 3 hold the same positions in the National championship (Fafe's P3, Marco Bulacia/Diego Vallejo, didn't partake).

- Pedro Almeida/António Costa showed great pace, but had a moment starting the last loop of stages and got stuck in a ditch. A slightly deflating ending to a very very promising weekend, a lot to look forward to from them. It was their first rally together too, after Mário Castro's injury in Fafe. Wishing him a speedy recovery!

- In the Promo championship, Martynas Samsonas/Ervinas Snitkas swung first but a turbo problem (I think?) left them on the backfoot Saturday morning, whilst the legendary Adruzilo Lopes (paired with Paulo Leones) and Armando Carvalho/Ana Santos closed the gap. By the afternoon though, Samsonas/Snitkas were back to stage-winning performance and Carvalho/Santis hit a rock breaking their Evo IX's suspension in the last stage, costing their well-earned 2nd place, with Adruzilo/Leones claiming it and Miguel Carvalho/António Reis (no relation to Armando, afaik) taking their i20 N5 to the podium. These two Portuguese crews now hold 1 and 2 in the Promo championship, whilst Samsonas/Snitkas's Fafe problems leave him in P3.

- Like, the final stage in general was a shitshow. Nearly 25km that claimed 11 crews across both passes, and there were plenty that passed by our spot (about 3/4 into the stage) nursing problems. And then something happened further down the field, with the 2WD leaderboards results being amended multiple times. Very confusing, not a lot of transparency from the organizers, par for the course. All I know is from reading comments on the FB (something about a SOS card being shown inappropriately and holding up contenders?), so take it with a grain of salt.

- Sad I didn't see the Mazda 323! Apparently it died on the liaison to SS1 and there was nothing the veteran Jaime Falcão and the co-driver Beatriz Afonso (in what was to be, as far as I can find, her competitive debut!) could do. Hope I can catch them somewhere else this year.

- A few highlights, personally: Nuno Pinto/João Silva wringing the neck out of their C2 R2 Max whenever they passed by; the beautiful tiny matchbox 205 GTi João Sousa and Helena Maia very nearly brought home until it gave up the ghost in that deadly final loop (for real, 70% of the retirements happened in those final 3 stages); Carlos Marreiros/Nuno Duque and their beautiful Saxo Cup! A great showing by the 17 year-old driver taking that little beaut to the finish line.

- To finish off, this was my first live rally experience in a few years! I'd missed this. Sure, not as much info and possibility to live track the times and what not but that's not what's special about it, at least for me. I loved chatting to way more knowledgeable people, hearing the stories, getting a glimpse behind the curtain into what is essentially a family. A competitive, fun, kinda fucked up but ultimately loving family. I truly hope I get the chance to do it again soon!

[Jarek Z]

Thanks for your reflections, but why did you not mention another legend, Rui Madeira, who finished 5th overall?

[tonirali]

Ah, my bad! They did seem pretty quick the few times he passed me by, albeit dragged down by roadsweeping duties in those two proper Friday stages. By Saturday morning, they were a bit too far behind to make much of an impression but his improved road position helped him rise through the day. With all the chaos, I wasn't paying as much attention to them, as it happens. P4 in two stages in the afternoon loop (in what also seemed like a slightly slower Fiesta compared to the top Hyundai's and Skoda's) was proper impressive. If the rally were a bit bigger, it would've been fun to see if the gap to Ernesto Cunha and Pedro Meireles could be closed.