The last round of the Portuguese Nationals took place in Trofa in the northern part of Portugal. I had already secured enough points to win the championship, but as we must âśthrow awayâť one of the results â“ only 4 classifications are considered â“ I wanted to be at my best to get all 4 wins and achieve the perfect 480 points.
During Saturday it was time to practice and find the best set-up for the car. My car wasnâ™t bad but we needed to improve it a bit. We changed a few details during the afternoon and the car became much better.
We had some rain overnight and on Sunday morning the track was quite slippery. I had achieved a good set-up for dry conditions, and that made me struggle a lot in the qualification and ended up in 6th. Bruno Coelho got TQ.
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The track was drying as the day went by, and in my Semi I just had to adjust a couple of things and the car improved a lot. I had a poor start with some errors and bumps, but I managed to recover and still got the top spot in the A-Main grid.
The A-Main start was really bad, even worse than in my Semi, with too many stupid mistakes. I had to push hard to reach Bruno Coelho. I managed to recover the gap and had to fight for a few minutes with Bruno for the lead. When I got the lead, I kept it until the end, opening a nice gap which allowed me to control the race in the final minutes.
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Final results:
1. Carlos Duraes â“ XRAY XB808 2011
2. Bruno Coelho
3. Ricardo Monteiro
4. Miguel Matias 5. Pedro Figueiredo â“ XRAY XB808 2011
The Portuguese Nationals are now over, and Iâ™m very happy to get the title with 4 wins in 5 rounds.
Thanks to all of those who helped and believed in meâ¦
