Zoom Campos did a good job at Rally Portugal this week-end

Miguel Campos and Paulo Babo were lying eighth overall with their BFGoodrich- and Portugal-liveried Peugeot 207 S2000 on this weekend's Rally de Portugal when they were cruelly sidelined 45km from home on the road section back to the end-of-rally parc ferme in the Algarve Stadium.

The 2003 European Rally Championship runner-up Miguel Campos was selected by Portugal's motor sport governing body, a panel of journalists, rallying's benchmark tyre brand BFGoodrich and Kronos Racing to drive a Peugeot 207 S2000 on the 2008 Rally de Portugal, round two of this year's Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

A test session was organised near Almodovar prior to the start to give the 35-year old a chance to familiarise himself with the 2007 IRC-winning car and also sample the BFGoodrich range of gravel rally tyres. After that, the Portuguese driver finally got the BFGoodrich Drivers Team operation off to a flying start in front of thousands of fans on Thursday evening's super-special through the streets of Faro.

The serious business began the following day, however, in the Algarve hills where Miguel Campos posted the eighth-fastest time on SS2 running on medium compound g-Force Gravel tyres. Unfortunately, he then lost about a minute on SS4 when he was caught in the dust cloud thrown up by a competitor running ahead of him on the road.

Despite this setback, he kept his calm and stayed focused to return to the lunchtime service halt in 13th place, although that wasn't to be the end of his headaches...

The tyre choice for Friday afternoon's three stages was made particularly complex when heavy rain started to fall over the service park just as drivers were weighing up their options. According to the latest information, though, the stages were still dry and, with advice from his BFGoodrich technician and Kronos Racing personnel, Campos gambled on dry conditions and opted for hard compound g-Force Gravels.

The first test of the loop was damp, but once again the BFGoodrich Drivers Team ambassador kept a cool head and went on to complete the opening day inside the top-ten, preceded by a former European Champion and ahead of a former Junior World Champion, no less!

The second and final day took survivors further to the north for a loop of three long stages to be contested twice each. Miguel Campos and his new co-driver Paulo Babo kept to the same quick pace and put in a particularly consistent run as many of their rivals were caught out by the demanding gravel roads.