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PAX Rally Lisboa - Portimão 2008
PAX Rally in Portimão.
entry list
The lists of participants in PAX Rally already available here.
maps
Pax Rally Maps with information concerning connections and show areas already available here.
Information
Check view of Parque Eduardo VII
Casas do Sal
On your passage through Alentejo visit Casas do Sal.
News
DRAMATIC ENDING IN EUROMILHÕES PAX RALLY
A mistake from Carlos Sainz (VW Race Touareg 2) near the end of the last stage, when he could not avoid losing control of his VW, was decisive for the nearly impossible victory of Stephane Peterhansel (Mitsubishi Pajero Evo) in the Euromilhões PAX Rally. The Spanish driver started the last day of competition – SS 6 with 68 km – with a tight advantage of 31 seconds over the Frenchman, but that “El Matador” had all the chances to manage and try to repeat his last victory in the Central Europe Rally. This victory was even more certain, when a forest fire, forced the Stewarts to neutralize the race at CP 1 (km 31). The SS was now shorter and could give Carlos Sainz the advantage he needed to win. But, against the odds, Sainz’s VW rolled near the end of the stage, giving Peterhansel the chance to recover, which he did, adding 16 seconds advantage to Sainz. Luc Alphand (Mitsubishi Pajero Evo), closed the podium places, confirming the Japanese favouritism.
Nasser Al-Attiyah (BMW X3) was the fastest in SS6, offering the first win to the German Team that was eclipsed in the Euromilhões PAX Rally by VW and Mitsubishi.
The bike category, on stage before the cars, completed the full SS length (68 km). Ruben Faria (Honda CRF 450) confirmed his great form since the beginning of the rally, won again the leg, with 1.30 over his main opponent, beating “giants” Cyril Despres (KTM LC4 690 Rally) and Marc Coma (KTM LC4 690 Rally), representatives of the Austrian official team.
This is a dominating victory for the Portuguese rider that took full command of the SS’s since day one and had only to manage the advantage he achieved day by day. Faria reached his goal while confirming that the results obtained in the last edition of the Lisboa-Dakar weren’t a once in a life time achievement.
Despres and Coma tried their best, specially in the first days of the competition, to keep up with Faria, but soon they understood that they had a hard mission to accomplish. The result of this dominance was a final advantage of over six seconds to favorite Cyril Despres. Third place went to Marc Coma.
In the quad competition, surprising but indisputable victory of Luís Engeitado. At his first big rally, that demands a lot of navigation experience during so many days, the Suzuki LTR 450 rider was far from being appointed as one of the favourites, but along the stages he became more and more unbeatable.
Hubert Deltrieu (Polaris Outlaw 525 IRS) was second and Rui Mendes (Suzuki LTR 450) third.
The Euromilhões PAX Rally comes to an end and for the record remains five days of emotion and intense battles until the end, exactly as the organizers wished when they assumed this challenge four months ago.