Due to circumstances beyond his control the Federacao Portuguesa De Motonautica President Paulo Ferreira has been informed by Olga Martins, who is the Regional Director of Nature Conservation and Forests of Alentejo that no powerboat racing can take place in the region of Velha de Ródão, until September.

The race venue, as many of those that have visited have seen for themselves is an area of outstanding natural beauty with an important colony of griffin vulture located there. In Portugal, a few hundred pairs of griffon’s nests, with the primary areas of reproduction located in the northeast, which is home to more than half of the Portuguese population.

The justification for the delay till September is due to the presence of griffon vultures that have a long reproduction period. That is, from the laying of the egg in March until the chick leaves the nest can take six months. In the case of birds that breed on the cliffs, the danger of falling eggs or the hatchlings themselves can be a reality when disturbed. Furthermore, the disturbance of the adults can lead to their departure from the nest for prolonged periods which effects the cooling of the egg (each adult only lays one egg) which can lead to its loss.

With Ferreira always holding the previous year’s events in September he was not aware of this conservation restriction and with this in mind he had little choice but to provisionally reschedule the race dates till September 10 – 11 for Ribadouro Baião and September 17 – 18 for Velha de Ródão.

When Ferreira spoke to PRW last night he stated that

I, along with our Federation have worked hard to put on races during these challenging times. Every time I say that I will put two races on for F2 I deliver, and I also pay two lots of travel money for back-to-back races to try and help the drivers.

This year though I want something in return from them. I will not except anymore ‘bad behaviour’ in my races and I will expect everyone to be respectful to all the UIM Officials. For me F2 is part of my family but I will not tolerate any lack of respect even if that means that I must bring in the local authorities to help, although I hope this will not be the case this year.

Currently the UIM F2 calendar is as fluid as the surface they race on, but the UIM F2 Race Director Pelle Larsson said

Mr Paolo Ferreira is powerless on this issue. He will for sure continue arranging two F2 world championship races in Portugal at the same place but in September.

As the calendar looks today, the first round of the 2022 UIM F2 World Championship will be in Augustów,  Poland on July 23-24, followed by Kupiškis in Lithuania on August 12 – 14. This means that I will have to look again at planning where UIM F2 European Championship will take place. Please be patient with how it looks now, and I will do what I can to get back as soon as possible.