Round 1 of the Luso-Galaico Trophy (held in Portugal and Spain) was held on July 19/20 at the Trofa track. Round 2 will be held on August 10 at the Porrino track in Spain. The trophy race was attended by 42 Portuguese and Spanish drivers.
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The Trofa track is different than typical European-style track in that this track looks like an on-road track but with a few bumps and jumps here and there, meaning that the track was very rough but also very fast and tricky.
42 drivers attended the trophy (click to enlarge)
The first qualifier was very disputed with several drivers making very fast times with few mistakes (about 11 laps). I was able to get the second-best time which was less than 1 second behind the 1st place driver.
Ricardo Monteiro´s XRAY XB808 (click to enlarge)
Then in the second qualifier things got very interesting. From the beginning of the heat I was pressured and that made me very consistent but also very fast. At the end I was one of the two drivers who made 12 laps. With this I won the second qualifier and this tied me with the winner of the first qualifier. The TQ would be decided in the last qualifier.
Things were looking very good in the last qualifier. I was in the lead and the TQ was very close, but in the last lap during a sharp turn the car overturned and I lost 1st place and thus the possibility to be top qualifier.
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Heading to the second semi-final in 1st place, I didn't have too much of a problem qualifying. I knew that with fast and consistent driving I would be able to qualify for the main, which is exactly what happened and my time put me 2nd on the starting grid for the main final.
There were 7 XRAYs in the main final (3 Portuguese and 4 Spanish). The beginning of the final was what decided my final placing. I overturned and lost some time, and with that Cristian pretty much ran away from me and my chance of victory. I was only able to try to reduce his advantage because I knew that 1st place would be extremely difficult to gain. With that said, Cristian took the win by a 7 second margin.
Final results:
1st Cristian Villar XRAY XB808
2nd Ricardo Monteiro XRAY XB808
3rd Joao Gomes XRAY XB808
4th Nuno Casal Ribeiro
5th Fabio Ferreira
6th Jose Porto Andion
7th Filipe Gomes 8th Tiago Leal XRAY XB808
9th Carlos Anechina XRAY XB8EC
10th Paulo Gonçalves 11th Sergio Gomes XRAY XB808
12th Alberto Fernandez XRAY XB808
Podium: Cristian, Ricardo, Joao (click to enlarge)
