The inaugural WTCC Race of Portugal was held in July 2007 at the
Circuito da Boavista street course in
Porto. The Boavista circuit had previously hosted the
Formula One Portuguese Grand Prix in 1958 and 1960, and was revived as a historic racing venue in 2005. With a length of , the track was one of the longest on the World Touring Car Championship calendar. As per the sporting regulations of the series, the Race of Portugal consisted of two separate races long; the inaugural event held in 2007 saw
Alain Menu win the first race, while
Andy Priaulx took victory in the second. The Boavista circuit subsequently hosted the Race of Portugal on a biennial basis until 2013, with the Porto municipal government only able hold the event in alternating years due to the financial and logistical challenges from being host. The intervening years saw the
Autódromo do Estoril assume hosting duties in 2008, where
Rickard Rydell and
Tiago Monteiro took the event's two victories respectively, before the
Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in
Portimão took over for the rounds in 2010 and 2012. In October 2014, the Porto municipal government announced that the Circuito da Boavista would not host the Race of Portugal in 2015 after Turismo de Portugal, the country's national tourism board, chose not to provide financial support towards the €3 million cost. It was later announced that the city of
Vila Real would host the event in 2015, utilising the
Circuito Internacional de Vila Real street circuit first constructed in 1931 for a three-year deal until 2017. Despite receiving a broadly positive reception from the drivers, the circuit drew criticism over the placement of tight chicanes for safety reasons before the circuit's high speed sections, which brought racing speeds down to as low as . In 2017 the event was the first in the
World Touring Car Championship to feature a joker lap, an alternative route constructed at the final corner of the circuit through which drivers were required to drive once per race. An incident in the practice session for that year's event, in which driver
Tom Coronel collided with an emergency vehicle down an escape road, prompted an investigation by the championship's governing body, the
FIA. In 2018 the World Touring Car Championship merged with
TCR International Series to form the
World Touring Car Cup. Both the Race of Portugal and the Circuito Internacional de Vila Real were retained by the series organisers, and in common with the other rounds of the championship, the number of races that formed the event was increased from two to three. In 2020 the event was one of many cancelled due the
COVID-19 pandemic, but was set to return to the Vila Real circuit for the
2021 season. The number of races held as part of the event will be reduced from three to two from 2021 with race lengths of and respectively. With the new TCR World Tour format, the Race of Portugal will be part of
both the TCR World Tour and TCR European Series. ==Winners==