Running for the World Championship of this category, the PT – Portugal Rally begins today, and is for the first time held in the Algarve. For this event, the organization which has been carried out by “Automóvel Clube de Portugal” (ACP) has prepared a charming operation so as to seduce the FIA to place the Portuguese event back on the calendar.
Furthermore, ACP decided that the PT – Portugal Rally should unravel in a symbolic manner. For this, the chosen location was the Vilamoura Marina and as general headquarters, the Algarve Stadium which will come back into use after the Euro 2004.

ACP invited Subaru to appear in the Algarve with an illustrious panel including two World Champions, Didier Auriol (1994) from France, and Juha Kankkunen from Finland, both winners of this Championship in 2002 and 1994 respectively. The other stars are Mikko Hirvonen, Jukka Ketomaki and Daniel Carlsson as well as the Portuguese Armada, namely the holder of the sceptre, Armindo Araújo among others.
 
Carlos Sainz from Spain will also be present. Even though he will not be competing, he will drive car number zero, the former driver who will be accompanied by Luis Moya, will reinforce his support of the 2006 World Rally application.

Is the best Rally back?

The Portugal Rally became part of the World Championship in 1973. During this time, the event was elected five times as the “Best of the Year” and from it many victorious names came out like Carlos Sainz, Massimo Biasion and Colin McRae. Markku Alen from Finland registered the biggest number of wins (five) on the Portuguese circuit. José Albino (1967), Francisco Romãozinho (1969), Rui Madeira (1996) and Armindo Araújo make up the winning quartet even though the two consecutive wins of Araújo in 2003 and 2004 took place with the Portugal Rally already out of the World Championship. A female win should also be highlighted. In 1982, Michéle Mouton from France became the only woman to win the event. Mouton was accompanied by Fabrizia Pons from Italy, who also navigated with Jutta Kleinschmidt from Germany in the 4x4 in Dakar.

The 2005 Competition and PT
 
Arriving at Vilamoura, divided into 2 stages, with a total of 12 Special Classification Competitions (6 PE done twice). The Rally will have a total of 802,9 kilometers, 239,1 of which are special Competitions. But the competition will not only be dusty. Various social events will take place. PT, the main sponsor, will be present with the technological display “PT Close to YOU” where people will be able to see all PT Group’s technologies.