It’s not for the faint hearted but worth every kilometre. Portugal loves motorsport and we unload our cars in the centre of town in front of the town hall. Then it’s straight down to the serious business of racing!

The teams are split into two groups as we arrive at a steep wooded hill. Its simple, there are two taped off sections running up hill, each group is assigned a section and when the clock starts the first group of cars to the top wins. We are chosen to lead our group and Nick and I can’t wait to get going. The flag drops and engines roar as our Lazer lights turn night to day. We power to the top then help the rest of the group to the top as powerful engines and winches scream on the wooded hillside. 15 minutes later and we have all our cars parked and finished. The other group struggle with the final three cars.

The next morning we are up early and ready for the 9 am driver’s briefing. One hour later, the crews move out heading for the first set of sections. We drive the first five stages before a circlip pops off a suspension joint and we stop to repair it.  The Marshalls bring us lunch and we head down the valley for the next set of stages. We arrive and there are stories abound of cars being totally lost in the deep water, of a stage so hard that the other Gigglepin Team could only to get halfway round and others only scant metres from the start. Looks like things are about a whole heap more difficult.

The next stage was mad 300 metre dash down a deep river with water bursting over the roof, up a sharp bank down the other side. Loud pedal hard on the floor as we tear further down stream before rounding an island and heading back on the same path. We can hardly see where we are travelling as the car fights and screams with us trying to make out the route through the walls of water. We roar up the final bank all wheels off the ground.

The next stage is the one that claimed Team Zamora. It’s another crazy dash down a river this time it’s deeper, a lot deeper….. Team Zamora had travelled down the right hand side plunging at high speed into the deep water, the force of it spinning the car, turning it over before it settled with just the tops of the tyres left above the water. The crew splutters to the surface confused and scared but unhurt. We line up and scream off the line taking care in the deep water sticking close to the sides before powering down the 1000metre section turning and heading back to the start finish line. The car is really enjoying these stages and we finish in a blur of water spray, our clothing soaked.

As we make our way to the next stage we find Team Gigglepin RFS – Allen Sharp & Ben Turpie – are taking a breather after locking horns with the final tough mud stage. Over 50% of the teams have attempted the stage but none have completed it. These guys had got the furthest but could only manage the halfway mark before the marshals called time. We watched, we looked and looked again. We walked the stage with other teams trying to find a route through the deep mud. While we are doing this other teams are trying their luck. Most teams only making it a few metres in to the stage before becoming helplessly stuck and having to be recovered.

Plan in place we leave the start line; we winch and drive using all our skills and reaching the hallway mark in only 11minutes. The mud claws at the car and ground anchor struggles to hold as we work hard in the 30 degree heat. With only 50metres left to travel the sands of time run away and we DNF the stage.

Day 3 arrives and it’s more special stages. The stages are very technical with the deep water disguising the massive rocks while the Maxxis tyres hunt for grip pulling us out of crazy places. We are cruising, taking our time to walk the stages where possible and pick our lines. We are 300 points (5minutes) behind the leaders at the start of the day (one second equals one point)and know we have to claw this back. The heat is staggering in the deep ravine and the water splashing through the cab is very welcome.

The night stage involved a tree lined gulley with plenty of technical winching. With high spirts we await our turn knowing the leading pair has been slow in the first stage. We destroy the lead vehicle times taking over 12 minutes out of the first placed car with still one more night stage to go. The second night stage is harder than the first and is more of what we excel at. We end up taking the fastest time on the night and stretching our lead.

Day 4 and we head out for our final day of action. There are 9 scoring stages including the seesaw and the Hi-Lift winching stage before the really extreme stuff starts including a technical rock stage that we had to cross in four different direction, mud stages and deep water. The last stage sees us break free in just over 3 minutes. It’s an epic finish to a superb event and despite being covered in mud we hug each other still in disbelief that the engine has held together.

The prize ceremony has a great atmosphere with all the teams being called up on stage in turn. Team Gigglepin RFS, Allen and Ben have done a great job and came 3rd in class and 5th overall on their first time in Europe. We were last to be called up taking 1st overall and 1st in RFX class. We are ecstatic!What a week and what a result. In the end we won by over 2000 points and dominated our class.