WRC2 star Bulacia builds up to high-speed summer return

The Bolivian won the WRC2 Challenger category at Vodafone Rally de Portugal earlier this month, but will now sit out the next two rounds in Sardinia and Kenya as he builds towards the realisation of a long-held ambition of competing at Secto Rally Finland.

“I’m really looking forward to the fast roads,” he said.

“My next event will be Estonia, where I really enjoy the fast-flowing roads and jumps and everything. Then I will do Finland for the first time – this is a rally from some years ago I wanted to do. It’s one of the special ones, so I’m looking forward to that.

“After that the rest of my year will be Greece for Acropolis and Chile, which is closer to my home.”

While the Toksport Škoda driver topped the category last time out in Matosinhos, he admitted Portugal had been fraught at times.

“We were doing a very good rally until the second stage on Friday's afternoon loop where I had a problem with the air filter,” he said. “I continued without power and lost more than one minute there. Then we continued to do our job and then on Saturday I had punctures and lost another minute there.

“On the final day we also had problems with the fuel pump and had to have our fuel tank almost full. We had to carry 30 litres more fuel than we usually need to have. Other than that it was a clean rally with some good pace on the stages.”