As at the end of February, northern Portugal welcomed the participants with extremely harsh conditions. It was even worse – it was raining and the wind was so hard that trees broke off on the special stages and cars got stuck, which certainly did not make the very important task of reece any easier for the participants. The weather forecast did not bode well either, so the organizers had to make every effort to allow the event to take place at all. They even had to shorten the stages on Friday and Saturday to ensure safety. Nevertheless, this extremely wet challenge probably led to some participants dropping out and the list of participants was considerably shortened. Among them – two N5 cars were missing, as there should have been 7 in total.
As Rali Vieira do Minho is not the main competition of the Portuguese championship, there was no qualifying stage and the competitors started directly from the shortened Nascente do Ave stage late on Friday afternoon, which was completed twice. The fact that the road conditions were extremely bad and constantly worsening is shown by the special stage times – Martynas Samsonas, who was the fastest in both runs showed a time of 3:55.2 on the first try, and 4:13.8 on the second. The situation was the same and even worse in other special stages. In these conditions, some participants dropped out, both with mechanical failures and being unable to stay on the extremely slippery road, near which there was also snow in places. Among those withdrawn were Promo championship leader Adruzilo Lopes, driving the Škoda Fabia N5, and Henrique Moniz, trying out N5 technology for the first time, driving the Toyota Yaris N5. Instead, the crews of Martynas Samsonas and Miguel Carvalho drove extremely confidently and took the first two places after the shortened Friday.
The status quo was maintained on the second day of the rally. Here too, one of the special stages was shortened by 5 kilometers, it continued to rain and the competitors continued to fall out of contention like autumn leaves or the same rain. A short run in the Vieira do Minho park was inserted between the two classic stages of the WRC Portugal and this rally. On the extremely narrow roads, which in reality had turned into a large puddle, the competitors tried their best not to knock over the nearby children’s playgrounds. Although the men from Domingos Sport managed to prepare the Toyota Yaris N5, which had retired on Friday, unfortunately, did not get far on Saturday. It was a different story for the other three N5 cars. Martynas Samsonas, together with Ugnius Vainevičius, left no doubt for a second as to who was most comfortable in these difficult conditions. Over 50 kilometers, the Lithuanians even built up a two-minute lead and celebrated victory in this rally again after a two-year break. Miguel Carvalho and Antonio Reis coped well with these conditions as well. While their Mitsubishi colleagues were still fighting for position on the first stage of Saturday, the crew of the Hyundai i20 N5 later pulled away from their pursuers by more than 40 seconds. The brothers Joao and Luis Araujo with the Ford Fiesta N5 had a little more trouble, but they also crossed the finish line successfully in ninth place.
The fourth round of the Portuguese Promo Championship will take place after a longer break – at the end of the month. The Terras d’Aboboreira Rally will not only be a round of the Promo and the Portuguese main championship but also the first round of the FIA European Rally Trophy. See you there 🙂
| Driver | Co-driver | Car | Team | Class | Time | Overall | Class | |||
 | Martynas Samsonas | | Ervinas Snitkas |  | Škoda Fabia N5 | Samsonas Motorsport | P4-17 | 43:20.1 | 1 | 1 |
 | Miguel Carvalho | | António Reis |  | Hyundai i20 N5 | MCteam Motorsport | P4-17 | 45:37.1 | 2 | 2 |
| João Araújo | | Luís Araújo |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | P4-17 | 52:21.9 | 9 | 3 | |
| Henrique Moniz | | Jorge Diniz |  | Toyota Yaris N5 | P4-17 | DNF | – | – | |
| Adruzilo Lopes | | Paulo Leones | | Škoda Fabia N5 | P4-17 | DNF | – | – |
