How is the Portuguese Rally Championship going?

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How is the Portuguese Rally Championship going?

The Portuguese Rally Championship began almost at the end of February with the Serras de Fafe Rally. In what the national championship is concerned, Ricardo Teodósio was king and finished with an important advantage ahead of his competitor Miguel Barbosa, who came second. Ricardo Mouro lost a lot of time with his starting order, but completed the podium. José Pedro Fontes was fourth ahead of Bruno Magalhães who marked his return to the Portuguese competition at this specific race.

The completion went to São Miguel island, in the Azores, last month, for the Azores Rallye where the Azorean pilot, Ricardo Moura, ended up ruling the podium. Fairly behind the winer, Bruno Magalhães beat Ricardo Teodósio in an interesting duel for the last two places of the podium. Miguel Correia and António Dias closed the bouquet of the first five classified racers.

At the beginning of May, Mortágua received the PRC caravan for a much disputed race for the title between four pilots. José Pedro Fontes was ahead but ended up being pulled off the road close to the finishing line, leaving a clear path for Ricardo Teodósio to obtain his second victory this year. On second position was Armindo Araújo, ahead of Miguel Barbosa. Pedro Meireles came up fifth with his VW Golf GTi R5 before this vehicle also got affected by what looked to be the beginning of a fire, something that had marked the first months of this model.

At the end of May the competition returned to the roads for the Vodafone Rally of Portugal. In this competition, also counting for WRC, it was Armindo Araújo who marked the rhythm and rose the highest at a podium in which Bruno Magalhães and Ricardo Teodósio occupied, once more, and in this order, the lowest positions. Pedro Almeida and Diogo Salvi occupied the immediately following positions.

On the third week of June, the championship went to Castelo Branco. Armindo Araújo repeated the success shown at the previous race after a lively fight with Ricardo Teodósio, who came second.  Miguel Barbosa beat José Pedro Fontes in a similar fight for third place. Bruno Magalhães occupied the fifth position. After this Rally Vinho Madeira, in which Pedro Meireles is returning with a renewed VW, there will be three rally competitions left: Terras d’Aboboreira, Vidreiro and Casinos do Algarve.

Current standings: 1.st Ricardo Teodósio, 109,18; 2.nd Armindo Araújo, 87,44; 3.rd Bruno Magalhães, 65; 4.th Miguel Barbosa, 56,82; 5.th Ricardo Moura, 46,39; 6.th Pedro Almeida, 42; 7.th José Pedro Fontes, 38,18; 8.th António Dias, 27; 9.th Miguel Correia, 22; 10.th Paulo Meireles, 18; 11.th Gil Antunes, 15; 12.th Daniel Nunes, 15; 13.th Pedro Meireles, 14,42; 14.th Hugo Lopes, 13; 15.th Diogo Salvi, 12; 16.th Joaquim Alves, 12; 17.th Manuel Castro, 9; 18.th Paulo Neto, 9; 19.th José Merceano, 3; 20.th Filipe Nogueira, 2; 21.st Manuel Pinto, João Marcelino, Rafael Cardeira, Paulo Caldeira, Hugo Araújo, Francisco Esperto and Nuno Caetano, 1.