Ricardo Domingos at the Samsonas Motorsport factory

Last week, the representatives of Domingos Sport – Ricardo Domingos and his brother Paulo – visited the Samsonas Motorsport factory, where the headquarters of N5 Lithuania are located. Domingos Sport from Portugal and Samsonas Motorsport have been working together for 4 years and this partnership is being extended with the N5 car project. From this year Domingos Sport is responsible for the growth of the N5 Portugal and next year we will have the opportunity to see the N5 Lithuania in Portugal. While the guests explored the factory and discussed future plans, we had the opportunity to talk to Ricardo about current affairs.

First of all – welcome to Lithuania. Probably the snow is not an everyday occurrence for you?

No, snow is not normal for us. If we want to see snow, we have to go hiking in the mountains. Here in Lithuania it’s especially beautiful because it’s different. When I came here, I was a bit scared of the cold, because in Portugal it’s 10 to 15 degrees at this time of year, but here it’s around zero. But it’s one more jacket and no problem. If something is different, it’s nice for us, like all the snow we see.

Is this your first time in Lithuania?

Yes, this is my first time here. Martynas invited me and I came to Lithuania to see the Samsonas Motorsport factory, meet him and talk about N5 and the next season in Portugal.

What are your goals for this visit to Lithuania?

First of all, I wanted to see how things like dampers or gearboxes are made, because sometimes we have no idea how things are made and what the process looks like from start to finish. I also wanted to visit Martynas and see what needs to be done to his car so that he can race in Portugal next year.

More and more N5 cars are coming to Portugal. Can you say something about the N5 situation in Portugal and why did you start doing this?

We started N5 Portugal through Martynas’ influence. If we all only work with FIA cars, some companies have to close down because you can only use parts from FIA manufacturers. We make our cars in our workshop, the maintenance is cheaper and it’s a natural replacement for the Group N cars. We were familiar with Mitsubishis, so we started with them, but now we need a change because it’s an old car and it’s difficult to get parts for it. It’s still a good car, but we wanted something new. We saw that the N5 has a good balance between performance and price and is a good 4WD car for people. Our neighbours from Spain – RMC Motorport produce these cars. We are pretty sure it is a good product and Martynas Samsonas has shown it also.

What are N5 Portugal’s plans for the next few years?

What can you say about Martynas’ plans for the start in Portugal?

Martynas has run two rallies in Portugal in the past – Rali Vieira do Minho a few years ago. At Rali Vieira do Minho 2021, it was a big surprise when Martynas won this rally. People in Portugal did not talk about anything, just Martynas’ victory. One journalist said that we had brought a nuclear bomb – so it was a very famous victory. We knew Martynas was fast, we saw that in Lithuania, but people did not expect Martynas to do so well in Portugal. This rally was also a kind of training rally for the best Portuguese crews with R5/Rally2 cars before the start of their championship, and Martynas showed competitive times with Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX among them. After this rally, people were amazed by the Lithuanian speed with a Mitsubishi.

Our idea is to start the championship on the gravel rallies and then we will see. In the promo championship there are 4 gravel rallies and 5 asphalt rallies. The stages here in Portugal are very different to those in Lithuania – we have very technical, hard and slow stages. There are also many obstacles such as stones, banks and trees. We do not have open fields to the road, so there is no room for mistakes. Our country is not that big, but we have very different stages in the north of the country than in the centre or south of Portugal. People talk about WRC Portugal being one of the best rallies in the WRC, and that does not count for anything. People, especially in the north of the country, have a great passion for rallying – it’s a second thing to football. You can say that rally accounts for about 70% of all motorsport, 20% is rally-raid and 10% for all other motorsports.

Why did you start working with Samsonas Motorsport?

We worked with the Mitsubishis, and we needed a good gearbox because it’s one of the most important parts of the car. With the help of Jukka Harra, I met Martynas in Germany and we made an agreement and that’s how we started working from 2019. We have already seen that the Samsonas gearboxes are the best on the market for Mitsubishi Lancer, so it was the best choice. Now these transmissions are famous in drifting and other disciplines and the universal gearbox is the best in the world. We’re very happy with this relationship and it’s not only a professional relationship but also a friendly relationship because we both share the same passion for rallying. It’s even easier to work this way.

More about Domingos Sport

With a brother we started rallying very early on. From 1992, we took part in “pirate” rallies, which were held without the supervision of an association. We had rallies almost every weekend. Later, these rallies were banned due to incidents and other problems. In 1998, regional rallies started and we prepared a car for a driver. Later I became a co-driver for this pilot and from 2000-2008 we drove 160 rallies together. From 2003 we started to work with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III and from then on we had more and more different Mitsubishis and other cars and more customers. Now we have 52 cars and more than 30 customers