We have N5 cars in Lithuania, Finland, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Peru. Of course, sometimes cars of this class migrate to other countries, such as lithuanian ones at the “Otepaa” and “Sareemaa” rallies at Estonia. At the end of the year, we will review the situation in each of these N5 countries. The first of them is Portugal.
N5 cars could be spotted in Portugal only in 2020, but these were rare appearances, mostly by rental cars from nearby Spain. Currently, two N5 cars are in continuous use in the country of the Iberian Peninsula, but there are more. N5 cars will appear in the country, and Domingos Sport work for in 2025 Portugal will have the N5 trophy. Lithuanians will also help to increase the number of N5 starters and show the capabilities of these cars – Martynas Samsonas plans to participate in March with his Škoda Fabia N5 in the rally “Rali Vieira do Minho”, which is the first stage of the Portuguese championships Promo and Promo Norte. There is the possibility that we will see Martynas more in Portugal next year.
N5 cars can compete in Portugal in regional rallies and in the Promo championship. The Promo championship is one step below the main Portuguese Rally championship – like Rally Sprint in Lithuania. Promo championship have three other subgroups – Norte, Centro, and Sul. If you know the geography of Portugal, this can be easily translated – the northern, central and southern regions. The Promo championship itself consists of rallies from all regions. At the moment, the N5 cars are mainly racing in the north and center of the country.
As for the participants, Rui Borges with the Citroen C3 N5 and Marco Oliveira with the VW Polo N5 are currently very active in Promo Norte championship, the fight for the title is between this two pilots. They are occasionally joined by other athletes who rent an N5 car for one competition or another. This year, however, there will be two first times. Miguel Carvalho has purchased a brand new Hyundai i20 N5 and will be competing in the Viana do Castelo Rally in a few weeks. This is quite a big step for Miguel, because before he drove a much more modest Peugeot 206 GTi 1.6 car. Another debut will take place in a few weeks. After buying a used Ford Fiesta N5, João Araújo will participate in the Rally de Cantanhede. Previously, he drove the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII.
The entire N5 Portugal project is managed by the Domingos Sport team, which is also the representative of Samsonas Motorsport in Portugal. After starting with the Opel Kadett GSI in 1998, it shifted its focus to Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution cars in 2003. Since then, more than 90 Lancer Evo from the third to the last – the tenth generation – have passed through their hands. So they have quite a few Renault Clio Rally4 and Rally5, Peugeot 208 R2 and Rally4 and other cars. To be exact, the team has no less than 52 cars. Looking for an alternative to the for N4 cars, and in collaboration with Samsonas Motorsport, Domingos Sport started working on the N5 cars.
