Green light for the 71° Rallye Sanremo and 39° Sanremo Historic Rally

The arrival of the competitors of the four races and the rally that will bring more than 250 cars of high historical and racing value to the City of Flowers has begun. And from next Friday, the roads of western Liguria will be the theatre of challenge. Valuable, also for this edition, is the collaboration and support of the Sanremo municipality and local institutions.

SANREMO (IM), 17 October – The cars, the crews, the mechanics and also the fans have arrived. From today, Sanremo is the Italian and European capital of road racing. Since last Tuesday, 15 October, in fact, the scrutineering has started for the crews that will take part in the 71st Rallye Sanremo, valid for the Italian Overall Rally-Sparco Championship, the European Rally Trophy, the Zone-2 Rally Cup, as well as the brand trophies, Michelin Trophy Italy, Pirelli Academy Trophy, Toyota’s GR Yaris Rally Cup and Suzuki Rally Cup, which will live its competitive part on the special stages of the hinterland on Friday and Saturday.

Today, Thursday 17 October, the focus of operations will be on Via Adolfo Rava in Sanremo, where scrutineering will take place from 17.00 to 22.00. The engines will be switched on tomorrow, Friday 18 October, on a 2600-metre-long stretch of road in the Montalto-Molini locality, where free practice will take place (from 7.30 to 9.30 am, to be followed by the qualifying session to define the starting order among the R2 cars).

This will be followed by the Shake Down (11.00 am to 1.30 pm) for all the other competitors. The competitors will then go back to Lungomare Italo Calvino from where they will go to the starting grid in Corso Imperatrice from where they will start to face the first three stages of the afternoon (Montalto-Molini TV test, 2.60 km at 15.43; Ghimbegna-San Romolo, 10.51 km at 17.46; San Romolo-Perinaldo, 7.73 km, at 18. 05) before returning to Sanremo for the regrouping in Piazza Colombo at 19.00, move to the service park on Lungomare Calvino to get ready for the longest and most fascinating stage of the race, the San Romolo-Soldano of 26.72 km tackled in the headlights at 21.03. The first day ends with the entrance to the Regrouping in Piazza Colombo from 22.40.

Sabato 19 ottobre la gara riparte alle 7.00 del mattino e prevede il doppio passaggio sulle tre prove speciali di giornata (Montalto-Molini, km 2,60 ore 8.15-13.07; Carpasio-Rezzo, km 21.02, ore 8.43-13.35 e, infine, Calderara-Testico, km 10,72, ore 9.41 e 14.33) inframmezzato da un riordino a metà giornata in Piazzale Colombo alle ore 11.47, prima della passerella di arrivo alle ore 16.40 in Corso Imperatrice sotto gli occhi del Casinò. Il 71° Rallye Sanremo si sviluppa su un percorso di 496,24 km suddiviso in 10 prove speciali per un totale di 116,24 km cronometrati.

There will be 112 crews that will descend the Corso Imperatrice platform 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 will have to contend with particularly fierce opponents, such as Simone Campedelli and Tania Canton, Škoda Fabia RS, who will start immediately afterwards, 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 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).

The 39th San remo Historic Rally will extend the competitive moment of the Sanremo days starting with the sporting checks scheduled on Wednesday (16.00-21.00) and Thursday (9.00-13.00) followed by the scrutineering in Via Adolfo Rava on Thursday 17 (17.00-22.00) and Friday 18 October (9.00-13.00) also the historic crews will be able to test their cars in the Montalto Shake Down scheduled on Friday from 11.00 to 13.30. The competitive moment will start on Saturday 19 October from the starting platform set in Corso Imperatrice at 14.30, a prelude to the double passage on the three special stages (Montalto-Molini, 2.60 km at 15.18 and 19.51; Carpasio-Rezzo, 21.02 at 15.48 and 20.21; and finally Calderara-Testico 10.72 km at 16.46 and 21.19), the second at night, preceded by the regroupment in Viale delle Palme and the service park at 18.43. The first stage will end in Piazza Colombo at 23.45, to resume on Sunday morning, 20 October, at 10.30 with another five special stages; the double Vignai (14.23 km at 11.35-15.42) the Ghimbegna-San Romolo (10.51 km, 12.08) and San Romolo-Perinaldo (7.48 km, 12.29) before taking a rest with the regrouping in Piazza Colombo at 13.00. 29; then retracing the Vignai and concluding the timed part with the long Ghimbegna-Perinaldo (18.26 km, 16.15 hrs) that plunges the competitors towards the arrival platform in Corso Imperatrice (17.45 hrs) after they have covered 485.91 km 133.99 of which divided into 11 special stages.

Valid for the FIA European Rally Challenge Historic, the Italian Historic Car Rally Championship and the Michelin Trophy Historic, the 39th Sanremo Historic Rally presents a real parterre de rois of competitors. There are 43 crews taking part in the FIA event, including the leader of the continental classification, the Italian ‘Zippo’ who will have the #3 on his Audi quattro with Nicola Arena alongside. The Emilian will have to guard mainly against the assaults of the Englishmen Ernie and Anna Graham (father and daughter), second in the continental standings with their BMW M3, then the Hungarians Tibor Erdi-Istvan Kerek who will want to redeem the disappointment of 2023 when they lost a wheel on their Ford Sierra Cosworth which in 2024 will have the number 2 on the doors. The protagonists of the various groupings will also be present, starting with the Englishmen James Potter-Tim Sawyer who lead the First Grouping in their Ford Escort Cosworth 1600, followed by the Italians Nello Parisi-Giussy D’Angelo, Porsche 911S #24 and Carlo Fiorito-Nicolò Ventoso, BMW 2002 Tii #28; The Second Grouping will see the Hungarian championship leader Lazslo Mekler with his wife Mikò Meklerne at his side in the #18 Giulia GTA, the Third Grouping will be led by ‘Zippo’ who will have to stem the onslaught of the Belgian couple Jacob Christophe-Isabelle Reigner and their Ford Escort RS 1800, while the Fourth Grouping is the conquering ground for Ernie Graham and Tibor Erdi, with the first of the Italians only 14th, Valter Pierangioli, with Arianna Ravano at the pace notes in his Ford Sierra Cosworth 4×4, but first to descend the platform of Corso Imperatrice. There was a large number of foreign crews representing ten nations in addition to Italy ( Great Britain led the way with six crews, followed by Hungary with four, Ireland three, the Czech Republic two, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and Germany one), including Raymond Breen in the #38 Subaru Legacy. Father of the late Craig Breen, two-time winner of the modern Rallye Sanremo.

As for the battle of the Italian Rally Championship Historic cars, of which Sanremo is the last round, we will have at the start the entire podium of the overall classification starting with the Porsche 911S 2.0 #44 of Giuliano Palmieri-Lucia Zambiasi, the Opel Ascona 400 #48 of Tiziano Nerobutto with his daughter Francesca on the right seat; the Porsche 911 SC #32 of Natale Mannino and Giacomo Giannone. Palmieri-Zambiasi also lead the First Grouping classification and by now the title in their pocket; the second one sees the Porsche 911 RS of Matteo Musti-Claudio Biglieri in the lead, who at the Sanremo, however, will present themselves with a Porsche 911 SC #35 in the Third Grouping, thus giving the way to the runner-up Luigi Orestano-Maurizio Barone in Porsche 911 3. 0 RS #54; the Sanremo will be the play-off in Third Grouping between Tiziano Nerobutto and Natale Mannino, separated by just one and a half points; while Matteo Luise and his wife Melissa Ferro will aim to close the game in Fourth Grouping with their Ritmo Abarth 130 TC #47, guarding against the attacks of Riccardo Mariotti-Giuseppe Tricoli and their Ford Sierra RS Cosworth #50.

Note that among the drivers who will have admirers Tony Fassina who will bring to the roads of Sanremo the Stratos with which he won the race in 1979 with Mauro Mannini. In this edition he will have Marco Verdelli at his side and the #8 on the car. Special observer for the overall will be Lucio Da Zanche from Valtellina with Daniele De Luis, who could upset the cards by aiming for the overall victory with their Porsche Carrera RS #33; right behind will be three-time Italian rally champion Gianfranco Cunico, with Gigi Pirollo, Porsche Carrera RS, on the podium last year and winner of the 1993 edition of the ‘modern’ race. The flag of the Ligurian drivers will be held mainly by Gabriele ‘Odeon’ Noberasco, co-driven by Michele Ferrara in the BMW M3 #37 celebrating his 25th participation in Sanremo.

As has been the tradition for almost forty years, at the back of the historic rally cars will be the regularity competitors for the 38th Coppa dei Fiori, valid for the Italian Vintage Car Rally Championship, which unites in a single race the specialists of chronometric precision and the fans of the roads of western Liguria. The Coppa dei Fiori will take place over a distance of 330 km, divided into eight average tests with 95 hundredths of a second timing on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 October, starting on Saturday at 15.40 from Lungomare Vittorio Emanuele and finishing on Sunday at 19.00 in Corso Imperatrice. Thirty-five crews will be taking part in the race, and among the drivers at the start will be the best chronoman in the speciality, such as Paolo Concari, with Marco Frascaroli at the stopwatch in the Lancia Delta HF 4WD #301 and Paolo Verdona, at the start in the Peugeot 205 GTI #201, who lead the speciality classifications. As always, the Coppa dei Fiori has great appeal for foreign crews, especially those from the north, who want to enjoy the sun of the Riviera. In fact, the entry list includes five German crews and the Czechs Michal Pavlik and Monika di Leonardo, by now regulars of the Coppa dei Fiori, who will be able to take to the Ligurian roads in their Saab 96 Sport that raced and won in the 1960s in the hands of official Saab driver Erik Carlsson.

To conclude the competitive section, there will be the crews of the 6th Eco Rally Sanremo, which will closely follow the cars of the historic regularity rally, competing on 242 km of route and no less than 267 surveys. Finally, we will have the splendid cars for the Club Italia rally, which will tour on the same roads as the historic rally, on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 October.