The inaugural BP Final Rally-Raid Portugal would be the third spherical of the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship, brining the sequence again to the Iberian peninsula. Because the identify signifies, all however one of many 5 levels in addition to the Prologue will happen in Portugal whereas the nation’s Automóvel Membership de Portugal serves because the race organiser.
The city of Grândola, in southwest Portugal’s Setúbal District, serves because the race’s bivouac and major hub, that means the entire Portuguese legs will begin and finish there. The rally’s Prologue and Stage #1 will each happen on 3 April; Stage #1 might be break up into two Selective Sections, comparable to what’s carried out within the FIA Baja Cups in distinction to the W2RC’s every day format, with the primary ending in close by Santiago do Cacém earlier than the second takes the sphere again.
“It’s a problem for Grândola, however a vital occasion for the native economic system as a result of drivers and groups that may go to us, in addition to a option to promote our municipality,” commented Carina Batista, the vp of Grândola’s Municipal Council.
For Stage #3, the rally crosses the complete width of Portugal and goes via border into Spain earlier than stopping in Badajoz. Town is situated in Extremadura, an autonomous neighborhood in western Spain that at present hosts the FIA European Baja Cup’s season-opening Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura. The race returns to Grândola the next day.
In complete, the timed Selective Sections will cowl roughly 1,008 kilometres with the remaining 750 being liaison sections.
“It’s a difficult occasion to organise with over 1,700 kilometres of race course and all that it entails, however with the expertise and high quality of our crew, we will do it,” stated ACP president Carlos Barbosa. “I imagine that ACP will placed on an excellent occasion and exhibit, as soon as once more, that we’re organisers of excellence. We can have all the most effective world drivers of automobiles, bikes, and quads who participated within the Dakar (Rally), in addition to nationwide drivers and groups from Europe who didn’t have the chance to go to the Dakar. It will likely be an occasion with many individuals, nice drivers, and above all, very fascinating as a result of the route is totally totally different from what they’ve carried out thus far.”
Revealed final June, the BP Final Rally-Raid would be the W2RC’s second European spherical after the 2022 Andalucía Rally in southern Spain. Each Portugal and Spain bost what are thought of the highest home cross-country rally championships on the planet, and every host races on each the FIA World and European Baja Cups.
