The 5th and last round of the Portuguese National championships took place on the 7th September at the Torres Vedras track; used for the RB Cup the weekend before. Miguel Matias wrapped up a fine domestic season TQing and taking his 5th round win of the season crowning him national champion for 8th time since 1999.
In the qualifications, the track was a bit bumpy and dusty, making in some parts of the track being very technical and hard to drive, but still Kyosho Driver Miguel Matias made the TQ, in 2nd was Cen’s Rodrigo Luís and followed by a surprising Pedro Figueiredo in 3rd(Xray), the qualifying were marked by Hong Nor’s Fernando Almeida problems with electronics, putting him in the back of the table.
The final went down with the track getting bumpier and dustier, Miguel Matias started from the last place, because he asked some time for technical problems, in the beginning of the A-Main everyone was packed together, trading places all the time, being very competitive, but Matias went with a superb performance till 1st place till the end, being ultrafast but using the MP777 instead the new MP9 (lacking spare parts), the 2nd place went to the young Carlos Durães ( With Merlin fuel and ATS Tyres ) with a awesome performance, being very fast and reliable with his Hobao, showing that he can be among the top drivers and fighting with them for a place, a real talent, in 3rd place was the young Xray’s Ricardo Monteiro being consistent and having the luck of Rodrigo Luis had flameouts,but still having the credit ,so Rodrigo Luís was 4th in the end.
The highlights of the A-Main was the real comeback from Miguel Matias, showing that he is in another level among the Portuguese competition, he started in last place and lap after lap taking places till 1st, then in 1st no one could touch him and the 2nd place to Carlos Durães, confirming his potencial and how fast he is, a real talent for sure!
Since this was the last race for the Portuguese National Champs, the 2008 Champion was Miguel Matias, winning all the 5 rounds of the Portuguese Nats, being always a step above everyone in terms of performance, now the Worlds is coming, if he can perform like this last round, he’s gonna be like evil fast on US track, fighting for the world title.
Final Classification of the 5th round of Portuguese Nats:
1º Miguel Matias – (Kyosho/Sirio) – 73 Laps
2º Carlos Durães – (Hobao/RB/Merlin Fuel) – 72 Laps
3º Ricardo Monteiro – (Xray/GRPl) – 70 Laps
4º Rodrigo Luís – (Cen/SIIM/Merlin Fuel) – 70 Laps
5º Miguel Lopes – (Gs) – 70 Laps
6º Tiago Parreira – (Hong Nor/OPS) – 69 Laps
7º Fernando Almeida – (Hong Nor/Werks) – 68 Laps
8º Jorge Gomes – 67 Laps
9º Guilherme Gonçalves – (Xray) – 66 Laps
10º Filipe Gomes – 59 Laps