5 Norwegian teams to Rally Portugal

The rally circus has returned to Europe and the number of Norwegian teams taking part continues to grow with a total of five teams entered in Rally Portugal this weekend.

Rally Portugal is back in the WRC event calendar, after a six year break, with new roads in the Algarve on the south coast of Portugal. Petter and Henning Solberg will of course be taking part in this weekend’s event, together with their co-drivers Phil Mills and Cato Menkerud.

In addition to them, three young Norwegian talents have joined the entry list. Other Norwegian teams are Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (Ford Focus WRC04) and Mads Østberg/Ole K. Unnerud (Subaru Impreza WRC S10), who will be competing in the WRC class (A8). Whereas Eyvind Brynildsen/Veronica Engan (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) will be taking part in group N.

Several exciting and out of the ordinary WRC drivers will also be competing in this weekend’s WRC event. Francois Duval from Belgium returns to the WRC circus driving a Skoda Fabia WRC, as does Guy Wilks after his unfortunate exit from Rally Norway. MacHale from Ireland will also be taking part in a private Ford Focus WRC06.

Super fast Araujo from Portugal will be driving a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC for the first time. Araujo competed in the Arctic Lapland Rally in Finland a few weeks ago where he drove on snow for the first time and took an impressive seventh place in group N.

A record number of S2000 cars will also be competing in this weekend’s event. A total of 5 cars have been entered and it’s good to see that three different makes will be represented. Anton Alén from Finland and Jose Fontes from Portugal will each be driving a Fiat Punto S2000.  Bruno Magalhaes (Peugeot 207 S2000), Vitor Sa (Toyota Corolla S2000) and Antonio Rodrigues (Toyota Corolla S2000) from Portugal will also be taking part.

Rally Portugal

The base for Rally Portugal will be at Algarve Stadium, which was built in connection with the European Football Championship in 2004. The service area will be located on the outside of the stadium and a super special stage will also be arranged inside the stadium. The rally route is located in the tourist area along the Algarve coast in the south of Portugal. The special stages are located in the Serra do Caldeirão mountains, just north of the town of Faro. Two identical stages will be driven each day. In other words, the same special stages will be driven in the morning and the afternoon.

The special stages include a combination of extremely challenging and bendy sections, as well as wide and fast roads. Top speeds are expected on Friday in particular. The roads are hard, but are covered in a loose layer of grit. If it rains, driving conditions will be extremely slippery and difficult.