Lisbon Superspecial for Rally of Portugal 2011

Rally of Portugal organisers have announced that they will run a Superspecial Stage on the streets of Lisbon next year.

The crews will recce the stage at 1:00pm on the Thursday of the rally. As a way of promoting green motoring, they will recce the stages in electric cars. An autograph session will commence after the recce session, which will be followed by a parade of the drivers and their cars. The competition will be run in a pursuit race format with at least three cars on the stage. The whole day will be run around the Praca do Imperio.

The Praca do Imperio will use the roads between the Jeronimos Monastery, Centro de Belem and the Museum of the Navy. The 3km street circuit will comprise of roundabouts, chicanes and even a jump.

“Lisbon was directly involved in the early editions of the Rally TAP [the original Rally of Portugal name], with Parque Eduardo VII serving as a stage that drew fans from across the country. Since then, Lisbon has lost any connection to the sporting side of the event. However, now Automóvel Club de Portugal (ACP) has redressed that situation, as the WRC begins a new phase in its history, with new technical regulation and cars.”

“The current trend implemented by the promoter of the championship - NorthOne Sport - and supported by the manufacturers, means organizers are encouraged to provide every event with greater contact with the public, particularly in populated areas. Therefore, the ACP has launched this project to bring the WRC to Lisbon, an initiative that has generated enormous enthusiasm across the board.”

On completion of the Superspecial, the whole rally will make the move back down south to the Algarve, 300kms south, where the rest of the rally will commence.