*Tiago Monteiro’s protégé on track in Vila Real
*Home race chance for successful Honda driver
*Rodrigues joins fellow local racer Mota in ETCC

José Rodrigues will make his FIA European Touring Car Cup debut at ETCC Race of Vila Real next week in a Target Competition Honda Civic.

A protégé of World Touring Car Championship star Tiago Monteiro, Rodrigues will join compatriot Fábio Mota on the expanded ETCC grid at the famous street track, located a short distance from his Braga home.

“It’s for me a pleasure to race in Portugal,” said Rodrigues, a regular in the ADAC TCR Germany series. “It’s important for me to be with my sponsors in my home race, I love street circuits and I love Vila Real.”

Despite winning at Vila Real in a TCR support event last season, Rodrigues is keeping his expectations in check ahead of his ETCC debut. “I am confident and it’s good to be doing more racing but I know the ETCC is very hard so I don’t expect to win.”

Rodrigues, who is supported by Sport Lisboa e Benfica, BP Ultimate, McDonald’s Braga and Honda, is managed factory Honda driver Monteiro, winner of the WTCC Main Race in Vila Real last season.

“It’s important that Tiago is with me,” said Rodrigues. “He gives perfect advice to me and is the number one in touring car racing. It’s amazing we can make this race weekend together.”

Rodrigues, 27, began competing five years ago and spent three years in the pan-European Abarth Trophy.

Having shared the track with their WTCC counterparts at the Nürburgring Nordschleife last time out, the ETCC racers will revert to topping the support bill in Vila Real from 24-25 June. Christjohannes Schreiber heads Petr Fulín by a single score at the halfway point of the season.