It’s this Friday that the 2023 edition of the Madeira Legend Rally takes to the road, a race organized by Club Sports da Madeira that revives the first years of the mythical Volta Ilha da Madeira, with a batch of vehicles that made history in motorsport events across the world.
The 37 registered teams are divided into 4 categories: Spirit, Open Legend, Historical and Legend Show, the latter is an exhibition mode and has five teams highlighted by the debut on the roads of Madeira of the Trabant RS800 by Olivier Hermans/Marc Hermans, one ex’s car. GDR (Democratic Republic of Germany) very popular in the Eastern bloc during the times of the cold war. Although he doesn’t come with his FIAT 131 Abarth, Paolo Diana, a driver from San Marino, known for putting on a lot of show in the Legend races, makes his debut in Madeira with the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth. Returning to the road after a 10-year absence is the FIAT 127 Abarth of Gonçalo Pereira/Rodrigo Rodrigues.
The Legend Show has the presence of Gil Baptista/Carlos Nóbrega in a Ford Escort RS MKII, the imposing Audi Quattro Sport E2 of Stewart Bowes, which with full participation in the race will be driven this year by Luís Boiça, thus being the only vehicle in the Group B present at the event.
The competition itself is in the Spirit, Open Legend and Classics categories. And we start with Spirit, which features a guest and star of the company, Andrea Aghini, who returns to Madeira 20 years after last participating in the Rali Vinho Madeira. The Italian driver has won the premier regional motorsport race on four occasions, the first of which was in 1992, and in a vehicle with which he will meet again in 2023 at the Madeira Legend Rally, the Lancia Delta Integrale 16V. In 1994 with the Toyota Celica, 1998 with the Toyota Corolla WRC and finally in 2002, the last time he came to the region, with the Peugeot 206 WRC were Aghini’s other victories.
In this edition of the Madeira Legend Rally, it will be driven by Massimiliano Cerrai who has been with him since 2002. The Italian duo will have the regional contingent as their main opponents, such as Rui Conceição/Roberto Fernandes who bring back the Ford Escort RS Cosworth A8, a vehicle that was champion of Madeira in 1995 and 1996, Rui Pinto/Ricardo Faria with the Ford Focus WRC’09, with which they won the category last year, Gil Freitas/Duarte Miranda with the Subaru Impreza S14 WRC, who will thus repeat the fights of the WRC at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century. After competing in the Portuguese Rally Championship with the Citroën C3 Rallye2, Bernardo Sousa returns to his homeland and revisits a vehicle he knows well, the Ford Fiesta S2000, with which he was national champion in 2010.
Still within Spirit, we highlight the return to the competition of Élvio Caíres with his usual co-driver, Paulo Freitas in a Citroën Saxo Kit-Car, as well as António Abel/Jacinto Ferreira with the Toyota Celica GT-Four. After participating last year with the Ford Escort RS MkII, Rui Fernandes, driven by Luis Neves, returns to crew a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, a vehicle he knows well and with which he was regional champion of the Production group between 2000 and 2002.
The Open Legend category puts vehicles without homologation into competition and will be a fight between Madeiran drivers with the winners of the last two editions Miguel Andrade/Bruno Gouveia in Renault 5 GT-Turbo, Cláudio Nóbrega/Hugo Martins in the Nissan Datsun, José Jarimba/ João Jardim with the Toyota Starlet, which will have Márcio Nóbrega/Roberto Feitas in a Ford Escort MK1, João Nunes/Vítor Marote in a Toyota Corolla Coupé GT (AE86).
The records include a lot of beautiful vehicles with a lot of history, with special attention to the “world class” Renault 4 GTL owned by António Pinto dos Santos, which participated in some WRC races between 1997 and 2000.
In the sporting field, the fight will be between the Ford Escort with Rui Jorge Fernandes/João Pedro Freitas, João Martins/Sílvio Malho who are looking for their third victory in the race and Rui Nunes/Luís Vieira. Vasco Silva/Ricardo Ventura in Peugeot 205 GTI will also have a say in the fight for the top places in the category.
In the Historic vehicles there will be a female duo, Lígia Albuquerque/Isabel Robalo who will race in the small Morris Mini Cooper S Mk2.
The Madeira Legend 2023 Rally has all the ingredients to be a great motorsport spectacle, with the peloton having to cover 81.40 km of special stages, divided into 10 stages. Friday starts at 11am at the Abrigo do Pastor (Carreiras – Quatro Estradas) qualifying, followed by Ponta do Sol (Canhas – Paul da Serra) at 12:53pm, Ponta do Pargo (Achadas da Cruz -Ponta do Pargo) at 2pm, The day ends with two specials in the municipality of Calheta, with Paul do Mar at 3:32 pm and Vila da Calheta at 6:30 pm. For Saturday, tickets are reserved for Terreiro da Luta (Terreiro da Luta – Palheiro Ferreiro) at 10:15 am, Abrigo Pastor (Carreiras -Quarto Estradas) at 10:43 am, Serragem (Serragem – Portela – Referta), Arco de São Jorge (Arco de São Jorge – Boaventura – Ponta Delgada) and to finish the Rosário classic (Rosário – Serra d’Agua).