• Michal Ždársky and Jakub Nabelek take victory in Portuguese round of the Bridgestone FIA ecoRally Cup
• All-amateur competitors in standard electric vehicles compete in major events
• Local partnership delivers 100% renewable power to the 24 competitors

The Oeiras ecoRally in Portugal, Round 4 of the all-electric 2023 Bridgestone FIA ecoRally Cup, was claimed by Czech pairing Michal Ždársky and Jakub Nabelek in their Hyundai Kona after an exciting two days of emission-free competition and catapulting them into the series lead.

Despite not enjoying a ‘home ground advantage’ the Czech motoring journalist and his co-driver prevailed over a strong Portuguese contingent, with other entries coming from France, Spain and Romania in a 24-strong entry list.

Events in the Bridgestone FIA ecoRally Cup are all regularity rallies, in which success is measured in a crew’s ability to navigate the course as closely as possible to a pre-set target average speed. Given that sustainability is the backbone of the series, the energy consumption of the competing cars is also measured, meaning that the combination of driving precision and energy conservation are the deciding factors.

Regularity rallies take place in open traffic and in obeyance of local traffic laws and speed limits. This enables the Bridgestone FIA ecoRally Cup to be open to amateur drivers using completely standard production electric vehicles. In addition, the Oeiras ecoRally enjoyed power from 100% renewable sources, courtesy of a partnership with Prio, and the region enjoys enough recharging points for the crews to be able to recharge without a large centralised facility.

The rally route measured two stages on the Saturday evening session, measuring 33.7 km and 8.1 km respectively. Both stages were run twice, giving a day total of 83.7 km in regularity and 155.9 km. A full day then followed on Sunday along some of the busiest tourist roads on the Portuguese coast to the south of Lisbon, with eight different regularities totalling 133 km on a total route of 261.9 km.

Finally on Monday morning, with the results all settled, an additional 6.6 km street stage was laid out in Avenida to showcase the cars, crews and the spirit of the rally to the local community and visiting tourists.

Spanish driver Eneko Conde and his compatriot co-driver Lukas Sergnese, winners of the event in 2021 and 2022, achieved the maximum points from the regularity in their Kia e-Soul, keeping closest to the prescribed average speed throughout all of the regularity stages.

However Ždársky and Nabelek were close behind, third in the regularity, and their average consumption of 10.4 KWh per 100 km was enough to seal the overall victory. A 1-2 for Hyundai was completed when local crew Pedro Morais and Silvia Coutinho took their Hyundai Ioniq to second place, while the podium was completed by the Kia e-Niro of fellow Portuguese crew Nuno Serrano and Alexandre Berardo.

The result sees Ždársky and Nabelek add victory in Spain to their second place at home on the Czech New Energies Rally last month. There are nine rounds in the 2023 season. Round 5 features the E-Rallye du Chablais in Switzerland, which will take place on August 18-20.

Top 10 Results

2023 Bridgestone FIA ecoRally Cup Standings

Pos        Driver                               Rd.1      Rd.2      Rd.3      Rd.4      Total

1            Michal Ždársky (CZE)         8            8            10          25          51

2            Guido Guerrini (ITA)         15          6            8            9            38

3            Eneko Conde (ESP)            0            15          12          7.5         34.5

5            Didier Malga (FRA)            10          1            0            11          22

6            Ondrej Huconsvky             0            0            15          0            15

7            José Suàrez (ESP)               0            12          0            0            12

=            Vincent Mucchieli (FRA)    12          0            0            0            12

=            Nuno Serrano (PRT)          0            0            0            12          12

The FIA ecoRally Cup was created in 2006 and is entirely devoted to electric vehicles running in regularity events. The vehicles used in the competition are road production vehicles with an electric drivetrain, which have valid registration documents for public road use, without any kind of modification to the car.

The FIA ecoRally Cup provides Bridgestone with an opportunity to further promote "ENLITEN", a combination of multiple technologies providing maximum safety, outstanding tyre performance and improved sustainability characteristics, while ensuring that Bridgestone tyres are EV ready.