The joint project of Martynas Samsonas, Samsonas Motorsport and Domingos Sport continues its work and after a three-week break, everyone met in the south of Portugal, where the Rallye Casinos do Algarve was to take place. The Rallye Casinos do Algarve is one of the most famous rallies in Portugal with a rich history and this year there were 63 participants from the main Portuguese Championship and Promo. Warm weather, dusty and very difficult rocky roads awaited the participants during the rally with two legs. There were 9 special stages over 105 kilometers. Martynas Samsonas competed with his longtime co-driver Ervinas Snitkas and their Škoda Fabia N5. He was accompanied by another 4 local N5s, all equipped with a sequential gearbox and 3-way dampers from Samsonas Motorsport.
The rally started on Friday morning, where some crews took part in the qualifying stage to determine their starting positions. Despite their results, the promo championship crews were not allowed to start before the main championship drivers, but this factor was not so crucial in the Casinos do Algarve Rally, as the roads in the Algarve region were hard enough and did not deteriorate at all. A totally different story than Fafe three weeks ago. Later that day, the teams completed two 7-kilometer special stages in addition to a special stage at night in the streets of Lagos. Martynas Samsonas was in 6th place after the first two stages, but dropped back to 11th after the SSS due to a lack of power. The problem with the turbo pressure was hidden deep enough and the service times were too short to find a solution, so the Lithuanian crew had to tackle 6 Saturday stages with an underpowered car. During the 90 kilometers of very demanding stages, Martynas Samsonas and Ervinas Snitkas did a good job and compensated the lack of engine power with their skills and experience. They finished 9th overall and took a victory in the Portuguese Promo championship.
Martynas Samsonas itself shares his story about this rally
Another week in Portugal – how was it?
Not bad at all. We flew straight to the Domingos Sport headquarters. One day we worked on the car, the next day we did a bit of testing to see if everything was working well and that was it. Then we drove to Portimao, and on Wednesday and Thursday, we did a reece. As the road does not wear off completely, there is no limit to the number of reece runs. We drove all the stages maybe 5 or 6 times. Everything is so different that in Lithuania, for example, it is enough to drive stage through 1 time and there are practically no corrections. In Portugal, stages are very difficult and even on the 6th ride I still found something to improve on the pacenotes. It’s just completely different. The rally days themselves, like normal rally days – everything is not bad. Apart from the fact that everything is very stretched out. Qualifying at 8 am, and the start of SS1 only at 4 pm. Well, let us just say that they have their own ideas and work calmly 🙂
You did not have the full power of the car during the rally, why?
We had no turbo pressure and struggled to figure things out quickly. The services are very short and there is still a lot to do to see everything. So we did not have time to find out why we did not have full turbo pressure. The whole thing started in the middle of the first stage, and after that, we were driving basically with no turbo. Now we think the wastegate valve has failed. We ran for 2 or 3 years with the same turbo and with a separate valve. As we were driving according to the homologation book in Portugal, we had to use the internal wastegate valve there, which is in the turbo compressor itself and has a different control. I think we lacked experience at this point and “missed out” on something.
Three weeks ago you were driving in the north of Portugal and now in the far south. Are the different regions of the country very different in terms of the routes, the organization and the general culture?
A bit different, a bit similar. The weather was also different. In Fafe, it rained brutally, and here it is “brutally” warm 🙂 The surface in Fafe was terribly destroyed. Here, the surface has practically not changed at all. The stages here are a bit faster. The people – I do not know, it’s hard to say, but the organization is different… There was basically no information at all. There are no markings on the stages where there were hundreds of crossings and roads, etc. 🙂 As I said, everything is probably just “different”.
The last two events were characterized by a long rally distance on public roads, visiting regrouping zones in various places, special stages away from the main service, etc. How do you like this rally route?
It’s a question of politics. Politics is not about doing what you want or doing it well 🙂 Politics is doing what is “necessary” 🙂 Again, there were 3 cities and 3 regions. The liaisons is a bit shorter, although I think it’s still over an hour and a half to the furthest point. What’s weird here is that they give 15 minutes for service. Then we pull into the mall parking lot somewhere and stand for an hour. The time limit for the liaison is so short that I have to overtake all the cars, have time to prepare my helmet, etc., and then we already enter the time control in our minute 🙂 Or you do nothing all day, starting in the morning, then 2 short stages and again we stand in the city for 4 hours, do nothing and wait for some reason at 21h to drive the city SSS. And another short service where you can not do anything and then parc ferme.
The Portuguese N5 colleagues successfully reach the finish for the second time in a row, and Portuguese rally legend Adruzilo Lopes shows really good results. Are the locals happy with the N5 technique?
Well, Adruzilo is an old fox 🙂 He’s not in a hurry, but he’s doing well in the final standings. We are not young, but far from the fox like him 🙂
Anyway, I am satisfied, I have not heard that any N5 had any problems except our pressure… The stages are really difficult and rocky, but the N5 is definitely a solid machine.
What about maintaining the car when it’s many thousands of kilometers away?
That’s a really complicated issue. Well, if we were just a rally team with our nice budget, then everything would be different. In our case, a rally means 7 days off work for us… And the same goes for our whole team. We share the work. Now after the rally, there is a list of tasks that the men from Domingo Sport can do. Then we fly in 3-4 days before the competition and do our work. We are planing right now…
A new sticker has appeared on your car – N5 Nordics. Can you tell me more about it?
It’s nothing magical. There’s just a bit of movement with the N5 around the whole Baltic Sea. 8000RPM Aurimas Eidžiūnas takes care of all these things. We talked about making a common cause, a logo and putting all the news in one place.
