OFFICIAL PROGRAMME
The first super-fast WorldSBK run up-and-down the hillsides that characterise the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve like almost no other track in modern racing happened way back in 2008 . It is impossible to think that Portimao , as it is known more commonly , was first used by WorldSBK that long ago , as an inaugural event . It is such a contemporary take on a racing circuit that it looks like it was designed in the future , not the recent past . It uses every natural millimetre of its intensely undulating natural layout , and adds to its own unique drama to any event by compressing the straights in between the roller-coaster hills and dips . Like a European Laguna Seca but with an even more deliberately extreme track layout . From the big and beautifully sculptured main grandstand , all angles and lightness , you can see that Portimao is almost a complete stadium circuit , hewn out of the rocks and gravel of the hills above some of Portugal and the
Algarve ’ s most popular holiday resorts - Portimao , Alvor and Lagos . There are literally tens of thousands of hotel beds within a short drive from this circuit , hundreds of thousands still relatively close by . As a potential holiday race weekend , with or without the family , maybe only Misano is similar to Portimao ? In Europe , at least . This track was built , in this area , for a reason . Now that the promised trackside hotel complexes are up and running in the hills behind the massive VIP Tower that dominates the infield , the hospitality choice is even wider . Faro airport , known to holidaymakers from all over Europe , is close-by , and even Lisbon is not too far a drive away . Despite being located inside a kind of natural amphitheatre , you can get 100,000 people into Portimao at a push , with a grandstand that holds over 16,000 and total seating for just over 56,000 . For a track inside a hillside , it is
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