World Rally Championship

Rally Portugal preview (2009x11)

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Portugal is country with a long rallying tradition. The first Portuguese round of the WRC came in 1973, and for the next 29 years the event went on to become one of the most difficult and notorious rallies on earth. The event earned a reputation for tricky road conditions (often a mix of gravel and asphalt) and unruly crowds of spectators. Most of the pictures showing people swarming around Group B cars as they drove by at full speed were taken in Portugal. In more recent years Portugal was a gravel-only event, based on the west coast near Porto, but in 2001 it was dropped - replaced on the calendar by Rallye Deutschland. In 2007, after two years of candidacy, Portugal's return to the WRC represented a fresh start. The new-look rally moved to a new host town, Vilamoura, in the Algarve holiday region on the south coast. The event base is the Algarve Stadium, where two Super Special stages will be held, while the spectacular gravel stages are located in the Algarve and Alentejo regions.