The Abarth Team at the Portuguese Rally

Two official Grande Punto Abarth S2000s are taking part in the Portuguese Rally on the second leg of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge that starts tomorrow (Thursday 8 May) at 6pm from Faro on the Algarve. The two official vehicles are in the hands of Giandomenico Basso with Mitia Dotta and the young Fin Anton Alen with Timo Alanne, who hold third place in the general championship ranking.
In the past, the Portuguese Rally was one of the most important, closely followed trials at world level and this year it is once again back on the scene with the validity for the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, an international series that is undoubtedly on the rise and officially sees numerous car manufacturers involved.
The challenge facing participants in this competition is, therefore, particularly rich and qualified and sees other Grande Punto Abarth S2000 racing drivers from private teams in the running. These include the Belgian champion Francois Duval, the Frenchman Didier Auriol (1994 world rally champion), the Spaniard Danì Sola and the Portuguese José-Pedro Fontes. They are competing with well-trained rivals such as Luca Rossetti, the Frenchmen Nicolas Vouilloz and Brice Tirabassi, the Belgian Freddy Loix, the Austrian Manfred Stohl (all in Peugeot), the Fin Juho Hanninen, the Austrian Andreas Aigner, the Portuguese Armindo Arraujo (all in Mitsubishi) and the Frenchman Simon Jean_Joseph (Citroen).
The Portuguese Rally is run on a completely unsurfaced course over 800km, 245 of them with timed speed spread over 13 special trials. After the prologue tomorrow evening, that includes a special show trial, Friday 9 May sees the start of the first round, with 6 special trials, departure at 8.45am and ending at 6.09pm. Saturday is the second and last leg of the competition with the last 6 special trials, concluding at 6.10pm.


IRC Racing Driver Ranking in the Portuguese Rally:
1. Luca Rossetti ITA (Peugeot) 10 points; Nicolas Vouilloz FRA (Peugeot) 8; Anton Alen FIN (Abarth) 6; 4. Renato Travaglia ITA (Abarth); 5. Jan Kopecky CZ (Peugeot) 4; 6. Dani Solà SPA (Abarth); 7. Volcan Isik TR (Abarth) 2; 8. Freddy Loix BEL (Peugeot).


Turin, 7 May 2008