The next hillclimb on Madeira was the Rampa do Monte near the islands capital Funchal. Dinarte Nobrega took an important victory over Gil Freitas and Duarte Nobrega. Third place was for Ricardo Reis who remained ahead of rally squad Pedro Paixão and João Pedro Freitas.
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A whopping 20 seconds slower than the two leaders was best of the rest João Fonseca. With his BRC CM05 EVO he defeated the more powerful Osella PA21/S of Paulo Ramalho. Although it has to be said Ramalho had a small accident in the second race. Fifth was for best touringcar driver and Category 2 winner Gonçalo Manahu. With this victory he retakes the championship lead of José Correia, who finished third behind Edgar Reis. Category 3 was for Pedro Coelho Saraiva. The Mitsubishi Lancer pilot retired with gearbox problems in the first race but repaired it in time to take category victory. Manuel Correia had a close fight with Luis Silva in Category 4. However Correia was the fastest and increases his championship lead. The Category 5 championship had an unfortunate twist earlier this week. Winner of the previous two races Luis Nunes is suspended for the rest of the year. Reason is a failed doping test in 2016. Nunes had a prescription but after a very long procedure this was deemed not sufficient. Joaquim Teixeira now finds himself with a massive lead in the points race. At Santa Marta he took victory, closely followed by Francisco Marrão.
Just two drivers were present in Category 2. But as the saying goes, it only takes two cars to have a race. Gonçalo Manahu was fastest all weekend. But José Correia kept improving his times and in his last run he passed Manahu for victory. Paulo Coelho Saraiva, driving close to home, was the quickest driver of Category 3. Manuel Correia was the expected winner of Category 4. His main rival Luis Silva retired in the final race with mechanical problems but still finished second. Luis Nunes was the quickest driver in Category 5 in every session. That would seem like a dominating victory, however the gaps with Joaquim Teixeira were less than a second each time.
A couple of videos of the hillclimbs that were competed last weekend.
In category 2 a similar scenario developed. Gonçalo Manahu suffered mechanical problems in the first race on Saturday. But the Porsche driver recovered to take vcitroy with a lead of just .8 seconds on José Correia. Category 3 saw the most retirements but João Guimarães probably would have won anyway. In category 4 Manuel Correia dominated the event in his Ford Fiesta R5. Category 5 on the hand was decided by less than a second. Joaquim Teixeira set fastest time of the weekend but Luis Nunes was more consistent. In the end Nunes won with a margin of just 0.579 seconds.
Category 1 is going to be very interesting this year. Pedro Salvador won the championship last year in a Norma M20 FC. In 2017 he will be the offical driver for Silver Car and will contest all rounds in their EF10 model. In 2016 Rui Ramalho challenged Salvador for the title until the very last round. Now he has upgraded his Osella PA21/S to an Osella PA2000 to finally claim the championship. The older PA21/S will move to his brother Paulo while Paulo’s Juno CN09 has found a new owner in Helder Silva. Silva dominated the historics last year in his BMW E21 so it will be interesting to see him handle modern machinery. The scenario in Category 2 will be the same as last year. Gonçalo Manahu, Edgar Reis and José Correia will battle for the title. In 2016 their category was also open to Group A and Group N cars. That was not a succes obviously as they had no chance for victory against the powerful GT’s. In 2017 they will have their own category. Pedro Coelho Saraiva is probably the favourite for this new category. Manuel Correia and Luis Silva return for another battle of the E1 crown, now called Category 4. Luis Nunes will face off Joaquim Teixeira for the Category 5 title. José Pedro Gomes competed in an Ford Escort Cosworth in E1 last year. This season he will try to win in the historics in a Ford Escort MK1. Some videos of the hillclimbs that were competed last weekend.
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