Miguel Maria de Sá Pais do Amaral, 8th Count of Anadia , 4th Count of Alferrarede, KHDSMOM, commonly known as Miguel Amaral (born 31 July 1954) is a Portuguese

aristocrat The aristocracy is historically associated with "hereditary" or "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the upper class of people (aristocrats) with hereditary rank and titles. In some, such as ancient Greece, ancient Ro ...

, businessman and amateur

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

Family

Miguel Amaral, born in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, Portugal, is the only child of Manuel José Maria de Sá Pais do Amaral, 7th Count of Anadia and

Dona Dona may refer to: * Feminine form for don (honorific) (Spanish: doña, Portuguese: dona; Italian: donna), a Spanish, Portuguese, southern Italian, and Filipino title, given as a mark of respect * Feminine form for dom (title), titled nobility in ...

Maria Mafalda de Figueiredo Cabral da Câmara, of the Counts of Belmonte.Miguel Maria de Sá Pais do Amaral
Geneall.net Portuguese He married Maria da Luz Lagos do Amaral Cabral at

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a tourist destination, with luxury hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numerous royal families and celebrities, and has host ...

on 5 November 1983. Maria was the daughter of Joaquim Emílio do Amaral Cabral, a lawyer, and Maria Elisabeth da Silva Lagos. Maria and Miguel had two daughters: Maria da Assunção de Sá Pais do Amaral, born at

São Domingos de Benfica São Domingos de Benfica () is a ''freguesia'' (civil parish) and district of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Located in northern Lisbon, São Domingos de Benfica is east of Benfica, south of Carnide, west of Alvalade, and north of Campolide. ...

, Lisbon, on 29 December 1987, and Carolina Rita de Sá Pais do Amaral, born at São Domingos de Benfica, Lisbon, on 23 January 1991. The couple separated in 2010.

Career

Personal career

A mechanical engineer graduate with an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

INSEAD INSEAD, a contraction of "Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires" () is a non-profit business school that maintains campuses in Europe ( Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE), and North America (San ...

,''Anuário da Nobreza de Portugal'', III, 1985, Tomo I, p. 223 and Tomo II, p. 145 Amaral was the former majority owner of the

Media Capital Media Capital SGPS, SA, is a Portuguese media corporation founded in 1988 (originally named SOCI - Sociedade de Comunicação Independente, founded by Luís Nobre Guedes), based in Oeiras, Lisbon. Media Capital is a major media group in Portuga ...

group, a conglomerate that owns the TVI TV channel and several radio stations, including

Rádio Comercial Rádio Comercial is a commercial radio station in Portugal aimed at young people and adults. It has a broad format including contemporary, pop and rock music. It is among the most listened to radio stations in the country. History Rádio Comercia ...

and Rádio Clube Português in Portugal. He sold a majority stake in the group to PRISA in 2005. His current business interests are concentrated in Quifel Group, via 3 sub-holdings: a) Quifel Natural Resources; b) AHS Investimentos; c) Partgris. Through these investment vehicles, Miguel Pais do Amaral has relevant stakes in companies such as Norwind, Campo Largo Patrimonial, Novabase, Casa da Anadia and others. The majority of his investments are concentrated in Portugal and Brazil, in renewable energy and property markets.

Racing career

He began racing in the

Portuguese Cross-Country Rally Championship Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, as well as in the Portuguese Classic Touring Car Championship. In 2001, he teamed up with Pedro Couceiro to drive in the

Spanish GT Championship The Spanish GT Championship / Iber GT (''Campeonato de España de GT / Iber GT'') was a Spanish auto racing series founded in 1999 and organised by the GT Sport Organización. The series runs multiple classes of grand tourer cars in events aroun ...

before the two joined

ASM Team ASM may refer to: Codes * American Samoa, ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code * Asmara International Airport, IATA airport code * Assamese language, ISO 639 language code ''asm'' Organizations * Aare Seeland mobil, a Swiss bus and train operator * Al ...

. Later, he teamed up with

Miguel de Castro D. Miguel de Castro (1536-1625) was Bishop of Viseu in 1579, Archbishop of Lisbon in 1586, and later Viceroy of Portugal. He received his doctorate in Theology at Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. Th ...

driving a

Porsche 997 GT3 The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance Homologation (motorsport), homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the Porsche 911#911 Carrera RS .281973 and 1974.29, 1973 911 Carrera ...

RSR and in 2009 he won the

Trofeu Iberico de GT Trofeu is a line of 1/43 scale diecast vehicles made by Replicar in Portugal. The company was started in 1989, in Espinho just south of Oporto - the same town where Metosul and Luso Toys had previously been made in the 1960s and 1970s. Trofeu produ ...

. In

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. Amaral purchased a

Lola B05/40 The Lola B05/40 is a Le Mans Prototype built by Lola Cars International for use in the LMP2 class for the American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, and 24 Hours of Le Mans. Developed in 2005, it was intended as a replacement for both the Lola B ...

Le Mans prototype A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were create ...

, formerly run by Chamberlain-Synergy Motorsports in the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

. After one win under the Chamberlain name, the team scored two more victories as ASM, but this prevented Amaral and his co-drivers Miguel Angel de Castro and

Angel Burgueño In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

from winning their class. Amaral and ASM Team continued to run their Lola in the Le Mans Series in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. In

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, Amaral and

Olivier Pla Olivier Pla (born 22 October 1981) is a French racing driver currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Glickenhaus Racing. His younger brother Jim is also a racing driver Career French Formula Campus and Formula Three Born ...

raced a Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S/2 and won the

LMP2 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were create ...

championship.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amaral, Miguel 1954 births 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers European Le Mans Series drivers INSEAD alumni International GT Open drivers Living people Portuguese businesspeople Portuguese nobility Portuguese racing drivers People from Lisbon Drivex drivers