Francisco Carvalho was the big winner of what goes down in history as the last edition of the Bridgestone/First Stop Guard Rally. Organized by Clube Escape Livre, this year's rally took place between the 28th and 30th of June and marks the end of a race whose origins date back to 1988.
In a weekend marked by emotions (not only the competition but also the farewell to the race that always aimed to promote the Guarda region through the car), Francisco Carvalho made use of his experience and completed the maneuverability test in just 47,735 seconds at the controls of a MINI.
Nuno Antunes, also behind the wheel of a MINI and one of the favorites to win, took second place with a time of 50.371 seconds. The third place was achieved by João Batista, in a Mercedes-Benz Class A. Another highlight was Fernando Batista, winner of the first edition, who, at the age of 80, reached the 5th place at the controls of a BMW.
The best female performances were those of Olga Pereira, in Peugeot, who completed the route in 1min02s, immediately followed by Joana Castro, in Renault, and Bianca Bessa, at the wheel of a Fiat.
The Ford Focus was again present, this time in a more "quiet" version.
Solidarity on the rise
In addition to the maneuverability test, which this year took place near the Hotel Lusitânia and not in the city's urban area, the Bridgestone/First Stop Guarda Rally was also marked, as always, by the road test that took a caravan made up of 44 cars and 100 people connecting Guarda to Trancoso.
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There, the participants were welcomed by the mayor of the city, Amílcar Salvador, and were also able to visit the History Festival in Trancoso. On Saturday night, in Guarda, it was the turn of the Associação Hereditas to take the participants on a guided tour through the streets of the historic center of Guarda.
Luis Celínio, president of Clube Escape LivreIt is with a tear in the corner of my eye that we close this extraordinary cycle of promotion and dissemination of Guarda, through the Bridgestone/First Stop Rally, but which throughout these 30 years has always been, simply, the “Guard Rally. We can only thank everyone who contributed to this “brand” of Clube Escape Livre.
To close the story of the Bridgestone/First Stop Guarda Rally, the auction of the book “Nicha – Mário de Araújo Cabral” took place, whose accumulated value is intended to support Mário Araújo Cabral, the first Portuguese F1 driver and also a competitor in several editions of the “Rally of the Guard”.