Deadly quiet on Friday the 13th

Portuguese ERC round with weak entry.

After the hustle and bustle at Lydden and ahead of what will be a full house at Essay next weekend, the Portuguese round of the European Rallycross Championship feels like a hiatus or, perhaps more appropriately, a siesta. With some teams clearly feeling the strain of the financial situation, it was always apparent that the Portuguese race would attract one of the smaller entries of the year. And while the national championship in Portugal contains a few cars with which the organising CAVR can boost numbers in the Supercar and Super1600 categories, there are no TouringCar entries to be had from the local field and that class was always teetering on the edge. There are eight entered for the category and officials here are confident that that minimum number to allow the class to attract championship points will be achieved.

Elsewhere things look less good than we may have expected. With Ludvig Hunsbedt’s Nomaco entry pulled earlier this week, the event has now also lost Jean-Luc Pailler whose Peugeot encountered further engine problems in testing and Michaël De Keersmaecker; engine problems also given for his absence. Pavel Koutný’s new Fiesta is another missing from the entry, and here too it is engine problems that have sidelined him. Among the Super1600 field, Ondřej Smetana and Michaela Kalná will be non-starters.

Allowing for some of the national drivers who are not yet present to show up either before scrutineering finishes this evening or for tomorrow morning’s brief session, numbers will probably just get to 16 in each of these classes.

The weakness of the entry will undoubtedly lead to questions about the future of the Portuguese race in the European championship. At a time when there is intense competition to host one of the ten races, and with Finland, Germany and Hungary all assured a place in the 2012 calendar as long as they complete the necessary application procedure successfully, CAVR will need to pull back every single grading point it can over the rest of the weekend in order to try an compensate for the small entry.

Tonight the nearby town of Montalegre celebrates Friday the 13th with the ‘Party of the Witches’ in the castle and streets of the town. According to the flyers advertising this Portuguese halloween the event will attract 50,000 party people. While Montalegre will be trying to achieve the feeling of a ghost town, the racetrack will try not too, but it needs a goodly number of that 50,ooo to show up on Sunday to see some racing.

• Supercar
• Sverre Isachsen (Ford Focus II)
• Liam Doran (Citroën C4)
• Stig-Olov Walfridsson (Renault Clio III)
• Andréas Eriksson (Ford Fiesta VII)
• Frode Holte (Volvo C30)
• Mats Lysen (Renault Clio III)
• Tanner Foust (Ford Fiesta VII)
• René Münnich (Škoda Fabia II)
• Marc Laboulle (Citroën C4)
• Toomas Heikkinen (Saab 93 Aero)
• Timur Timerzyanov (Citroën C4)
• Frank Valle (Ford Fiesta VI)
• Andy Scott (Ford Focus II)
• Davy Jeanney (Citroën C4)
• Eduardo Veiga (Saab 93)*
• Pedro Matos (Citroën Xsara)
• Joaquim Santos (Opel Astra H)*
• Super1600
• Ildar Rakhmatullin (Renault Twingo II)
• Andreas Bakkerud (Renault Clio II)
• Zdeněk Čermák (Škoda Fabia II)
• Jaroslav Kalný (Peugeot 207)
• Johan Larsson (Citroën C2)
• Clemens Meyer (Škoda Fabia)
• David Johansson (Citroën DS3)
• Ulrik Linnemann (Peugeot 207)
• Daniel Holten (Citroën C2)
• Václav Veverka (Peugeot 206)
• Mattias Thörjesson (Opel Corsa C)
• Mandie August (Škoda Fabia)
• Stanislav Šusta (Škoda Fabia II)
• Arturo Cota (Citroën Saxo)*
• Joaquim Pacheco (Citroën C2)
• Hélder Ribeiro (Citroën C2)*
• Mário Barbosa (Citroën Saxo)*
• Nuno Ralha (Peugeot 206)
• TouringCar
• Derek Tohill (Ford Fiesta VII rwd)
• Lars Øivind Enerberg (Ford Fiesta VI rwd)
• Roman Častoral (Opel Astra G rwd)
• Patrick Mertens (VW Polo IV rwd)
• Robin Olsson (Peugeot 207 rwd)
• Koen Pauwels (Ford Fiesta VII rwd)
• Jean-Michel Laurant (Škoda Fabia rwd)
• David Nordgård (Ford Focus II rwd)

* = on the entry list but not seen yet

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