The City of Sanremo awaits the charge of the 250 plus crews of Rallye Sanremo and Sanremo Historic Rally

Just a few days to go before the arrival of the competitors in the races that will make the City of Flowers the Italian and European capital of road racing, including rallies, historic regularity, eco rallies and Club Italia gathering.

SANREMO (IM), 13 October – The counts are done. Almost 250 crews will be present in Sanremo over the weekend of 17-20 October for the 71st Rallye Sanremo and the 39th Sanremo Historic Rally, as well as the 38th Coppa dei Fiori Regularity Rally, Sanremo Eco Rally and the Club Italia gathering.

The weekend will begin on Thursday 17 October with scrutineering for the 71st Rallye Sanremo, a round valid for the Italian Overall Rally Championship, the European Rally Trophy, the Zone-2 Rally Cup, as well as the branded trophies, Michelin Trophy Italy, Academy Trophy Pirelli, Toyota’s GR Yaris Rally Cup and Suzuki Rally Cup, which will light up the hinterland special stages on Friday and Saturday.

There will be 111 crews that will step down the platform of Corso Imperatrice in front of the Casino led by the reconfirmed 2024 Italian champion Andrea Crugnola, co-driven by Pietro Elia Ometto, star of the season with their Citroën C3, anxious to conquer their first victory in the City of Flowers (in his palmares only two second places); Crugnola who will have to contend with particularly fierce opponents, such as Simone Campedelli and Tania Canton, Škoda Fabia RS, who will start immediately after, then the Toyota GR Yaris of Giandomenico Basso-Lorenzo Granai, winners of the Sanremo 2023 and the only ones to win a race this season. Even though the Italian Rally Overall Promotion Championship has been awarded, it will be interesting to see the fight between the newly crowned champion Marco Signor, with Daniele Michi at the pace notes in his Toyota Yaris, who will have to contend mainly with the very young (23 years old) and talented Roberto Daprà, with Luca Guglielmetti , at the wheel of his Škoda Fabia RS. Speaking of promising young drivers, the race of Andrea Mabellini and Virginia Lenzi should be followed, who with their Škoda Fabia RS have impressed well during the season, and the veteran Paolo Andreucci with Rudy Briani in the right seat of the Skoda Fabia RS, who is in his 26th presence at the Sanremo, having won six of them, four of them consecutively (2015/2018).

Sanremo is decisive for the awarding of the Two-Wheel-Drive title that will be contested between the Peugeot 208 GT Line Rally4 of Giorgio Cogni-Simone Brachi, Gianandrea Pisani-Massimo Moriconi and Christofer Lucchesi-Enrico Bracchi. As the Sanremo is a 1.5 coefficient race, whoever wins in the City of Flowers has a very good chance of taking home the title. The Junior crown is a private affair between Matteo Doretto-Marco Frigo and Francesco De Ceci-Niccolò Lazzarini, with the former clearly the favourite who only needs a handful of points. But as history teaches us, titles are only won on the final podium and often beyond.

The 71st Rallye Sanremo is also the fourth and final round of the Zone-2 Rally Cup, and it is expected that there will be a battle between the Lanterna National Final contenders, to which Elwis Chentre, Jacopo Araldo, then the winner of the recent Rally delle Palme, the Under 25 Federico Gangi, Federico Santini and Massimo Marasso are aiming, with the Genoese Francesco Aragno to stir the cards. Also looking at the CRZ is Sanremo’s Patrizia Sciascia, with Roberto Lollo to co-drive her in the Škoda Fabia RS, who will also be aiming for success in the women’s category, facing Rachele Somaschini and Arianna Doriguzzi Breatta.

In addition to the fiery modern Italian flagship event, the roads of the Ligurian hinterland will also be contested on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 by the historic cars of the 39th Sanremo Historic Rally, 45 of which are entered in the FIA European Historic Championship and 36 in the Italian Historic Car Rally Championship, followed by the equally historic cars of the 38th Coppa dei Fiori regularity rally, plus the two protagonists of the Eco Rally and the dozen dream cars of the Club Italia gathering.

In short, for four days Sanremo and the roads of the Imperia hinterland will be the centre of attention for modern and historic road racing fans.