KRIS Meeke has set his sights on regaining the upper hand in the Portuguese Rally Championship with Stuart Loudon on this weekend’s Rali da Agua – the penultimate round of the competition.
Meeke enjoyed a blistering start to the year and threatened to run away with the drivers’ title as he chalked up four maximum scores on the bounce in his Team Hyundai Portugal-run i20 N Rally2. These all came on gravel, including the curtain raising Rali Serras de Fafe at the end of February.
However, as the surface changed over to asphalt, so did the Dungannon man’s luck, starting at June’s Rali de Castelo Branco when his supermini developed suspected throttle failure three stages from the end. It cost him over three minutes in lost time – and an almost guaranteed fifth victory.
His poor form extended into August’s Rali Vinho da Madeira, this time on the opening stage as a small fire quickly filled his car with smoke.
Overcome by the fumes, the 44-year-old had to pull off the road and park up, with his late arrival to the stage-end control incurring a ten-minute penalty.
It means he starts Rali da Agua seven points (132) behind the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of Armindo Araujo – the only other person who has a mathematical chance of being crowned the champion.
“I hope the rally goes much smoother for me, after the setbacks that arose in the last two events, which caused me to lose valuable points in the championship,” said Meeke, who took the win on the very final stage of last year’s Rali da Agua by less than two seconds courtesy of a fastest time.
“Last year the weather conditions were quite unstable. The rain definitely played its part in making the rally very difficult, but luckily, we did enough at the end to get the win we wanted,” he added.
In terms of who can deny former FIA Word Rally Championship driver Meeke points this weekend, the Portuguese trio of Ricardo Teodosio, Pedro Almeida, and Jose Pedro Fontes are more than capable of doing so.
The opening three stages are due to get underway later this afternoon before 6pm UK time, with Saturday’s action commencing at 10.14am and finish at 5.10pm when the winners are confirmed