Rally Portugal to Hold Porto Roadshow in May

Rallying will return to the city of Porto one week before the official start of Rally Portugal, scheduled to take place between May 28-30 and counting as the 6th event of the 2010 WRC calendar. The announcement was made earlier this week, meaning that the WRC caravan will travel to the northern Portuguese city on May 23 to showcase a sample of rally racing to the fans from around that region.

As you all know, Porto is not the base of Rally Portugal anymore – it has been almost a decade since rally drivers were fighting for wins on stages held around the city – as it has settled camp in the southern region of Algarve for the past 3 years.

The promotional run that will be held in Porto is aimed at bringing the Portuguese fans of rallying – located in the northern region of the country to watch their favorites at play. The Porto Roadshow will therefore be comprised of a superspecial stage involving jumps, chicanes, donut and drifting areas, with the itinerary located around the City Hall.

“It was obvious that we should do something in Porto. If the nature of modern rallying led us to move the event to the Algarve, we simply could not forget the support that we always received in the north of Portugal - not only from the local authorities, but also from the fans who have been so enthusiastic on the stages,” said Automovel Club de Portugal's president Carlos Barbosa.

Until 2001, Rally Portugal was ran in the northern regions of Portugal, becoming famous to the worldwide public for its immense enthusiasm for the fans. Actually, throughout many decades of action in Portugal, the rally organizers had some big problems with crowd control – as fanatic rally enthusiasts were sitting on the roadway during the actual stages. This led to several fatal crashes in the 1980s.