The Rui Rijo/Miguel Luz duo from Almancil was the big winner of the Rallye Casinos do Algarve, having also won the Regional Rally Champions Cup in the 4 driving wheels and in the P3 group. The race took place over the weekend on roads in the municipalities of Lagoa, Portimão and the foothills of the Monchique mountains.
The Rallye Casinos do Algarve hit the road with a new format in national rallies, the Regional Rally Champions Cup, a competition for which the 5 best classified in the groups common to the five regional rally championships existing in Portugal were qualified to compete.
The late attribution period of the competition and the huge congestion of the national sports calendar meant that it was not possible to have a more homogeneous participation among all Regionals. The race was also the closing round of the Portuguese GT and Classic Championships, as well as the South Rally Championship (CSR).
The rally started on Saturday morning, with a free practice and a qualifying stage in Porches, where the fastest was the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII MR by Rui Rijo/Miguel Luz.
It would be the beginning of the dominance of the duo from Almancil, who were thus the first to hit the road, reaching the lead on the first pass through Portimão, never to let go.
In addition to a first overall win for Rijo at CSR, Miguel Luz managed to become the southern champion of navigators. They also took home the 4 Wheel Drive and Group P3 Champions Cup.
In this group, in particular, they were supported by Nuno Carujo/Daniel Martins (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI) and Vasco Tintim/Filipa Tintim (Subaru Impreza).
The overall podium was completed with João Bica / João Sena (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX) and Nelson Silva / Paulo Silva (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI), with the youngest member of the Bica clan still achieving the Champions Cup in Group X3. This Cup was followed by the teammates on the podium and Rui da Silva Santos/João Sebastião (Subaru Impreza).
The two-wheel drive fight was won by Paulo Correia/Tiago Amado in a Peugeot 208 R2, with the pair coming from the Center to get the better of Luís Morais/Helena Maia in an identical car. In this P1 group, the podium was closed by Elísio Lopes/Marco Vilas Boas (Ford Fiesta R2).
Note also for José Manuel Gomes / Bruno Pedrosa, who still gave a lot of fight to Correia, but who ended up giving up on Sunday's first section, due to a breakdown.
Photos: João Viana
Still in the two-wheel drive, another nice fight to follow was in the X2 group, where not only was the Champions Cup at stake, but also where the main candidates for the CSR title of two-wheel drive were at stake.
It ended up having shared triumphs, with Viana Martins/Vítor Viegas securing the Cup and Paulo Anselmo/Pedro Dias da Silva signing the southern title.
In third, among the X2, were João Gonçalves/Rui Araújo in Honda Civic.
In Group X1, there was also a lot of emotion, starting right from the free practice, when one of the favourites, Filipe Silva/Ricardo Martins, crashed precisely in the first corner of the course, destroying the front of the Citroen Saxo.
At first glance, it seemed like a sure thing to do, but the Barlaventina team united, rushed to the workshop where the vehicle is prepared, and managed to bring a wealth of parts that allowed the car to be part of the race.
Luís Nascimento/Leonido Madeira were also unlucky in the same session, with transmission problems on the Opel Corsa, and still managed to resolve them.
Marco Ferreira/Edgar Gonçalves ended up taking the lead in the group, but problems at Citroen Saxo relegated them to second place in the group at the end, with Silva and Martins achieving what seemed like an impossible task the day before. Luís Nascimento and Leonido Madeira closed the podium.
Also noteworthy for Grupo P2, where Luís Almeida/Ricardo Bettencourt were the winners at the Fiat Punto HGT ex. António Gago, they were the only ones to reach the end.
Among the GT, Vítor Pascoal and Ricardo Faria signed the triumph in the race with the usual Porsche, with the pilot from Baião achieving the fourth championship among the great tourism.
The Carvalheiro brothers also came to fight for the title, but the Porsche's timing belt betrayed them on their second spell at Monchique.
In the Classics, the initial dominance went to the recently crowned national champions Nuno Carreira/Danny Carreira, in Subaru Impreza, but an exit at Monchique 2 put them out of the competition, giving the second consecutive victory to Luís Mota/Alexandre Ramos (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI), who finished ahead of Vítor and Márcio Calisto (Ford Escort).
Highlight for the great time at qualifying from Paulo Cruz/André Barras, with one of the responsible for Ricardo Teodósio's career surprising many, to the duo Nuno Venâncio/Fernando Almeida (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII), who knew they would be without the assistance team scheduled for the race. a day of its beginning, for the presence of the Andalusian Federico Jimenez/Gonzalo Torres (Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9), or even for the duel between the Suzuki of Vítor Rodrigues/Pedro Contente and Eduardo Modesto/Guilherme Sousa and the Escort dos Calisto and de Pedro Franco/Vítor Sousa.
The race was also marked by the presence of Ricardo Teodósio/José Teixeira, as the race's opening car, taking the opportunity to collaborate with the safety of the rally, and thanking the public present for the support provided throughout the season, in the conquest of the bi-national championship. of rallies, offering those present at the super-specials in Lagos and Portimão with a great show.
Rallye Casinos do Algarve 2021 was organized by the Clube Automóvel do Algarve, under the aegis of the Portuguese Federation of Automobile and Karting, with the sponsorship of Solverde – Casinos e Hotéis, the municipalities of Lagoa, Lagos, Monchique and Portimão and also Medronhito of the Cauldron.
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