Quote Originally Posted by Rally Power View Post
It’s not bold Jarek, believe me. Many national rally series in Europe have been recovering after the economic recession. We can see again competitive champs in UK, Italy, Portugal and some other countries, with a bunch of guys fighting hard for the win in any of them, but that’s not the case currently in ERC, with only one guy clearly favorite.

I’ve mentioned Portuguese series top contenders as an example, but in other national series main competitors surely also have enough ability (more than enough in some cases) to became ERC title fighters in its current situation, if they got the chance and a proper program.

Btw, sometimes Ewrc data aren’t enough to get the whole picture. Fontes is one of those hyper talented guys able to win a gravel rally one weekend and be first on a GT or Prototype race the next one. He won every national circuit racing categories before moving to rally and it’s now at the peak of his rally career. Unfortunately, like so many other great Portuguese rally champs, he often has to choose a more tactical approach in home soil international events, sacrificing overall win chances to assure national championship points or get the “best Portuguese in the event" title, overvalued by sponsors and general press.
Like I wrote, it is difficult to be fast at home field. But it is much more difficult to go abroad and be fast there also. There is lot of very fast drivers in national championship, but not so fast on international events. And there is also lot of drivers who are fast at home and are afraid to go abroad because they should be beaten... And story about budget is the easiest way how to excuse... I know lot of national drivers from the last decade who were really fast at home and they should have no problems with budget to go abroad. But they preferred to stay at home and be king there easily...