39th Sanremo Historic Rally: Franco Cunico lays down the law in the first Leg

The driver from Vicenza took three out of the five regularly contested stages, finishing 44″6 ahead of last year’s winner Lucio Da Zanche. In third place was Ireland’s Eamon Kelly, the best of the drivers chasing heavy points for the European Championship.

SANREMO (IM), 20 October – If they called him ‘Jimmy the Phenomenon’ there must have been a reason. Franco Cunico, in the first stage of the 39th Sanremo Historic Rally, wanted to reaffirm that Jimmy the phenomenon is still so dominating the most demanding and rewarding special stages in terms of results. Franco Cunico, co-driven by Gigi Pirollo, in the Porsche 911 RS of the Second Grouping, left his opponents only the double pass on the short Montalto SS, just 2.60 km, treacherous and in which he gathered little advantage, imposing himself authoritatively in the other three stages regularly disputed. Taking the lead in the classification.

In second position finished last year’s winner, Lucio Da Zanche, co-driven by Daniele De Luis in a Porsche Carrera twin to that of the driver from Vicenza, in search of his seventh Sanremo success and redemption for a not too lucky season. Like Cunico who was very careful in the two passes on Montalto, the driver from Valtellina was unleashed on the 21.02 km of the Rezzo downhill SS, setting the second fastest time overall, which put him in second place in the standings that he defended and maintained for the rest of the day. It could have been an Italian hat-trick thanks to the third place of the Ford Sierra Cosworth driven by Valter Pierangioli with Arianna Ravano at his side, with the #1 on the doors, third force in the race until the fifth stage, when he ran off the road in the second passage in the dark on the Rezzo SS, in the same place where Federico Gangi and Paolo Andreucci went off the road in the modern race.

After the Tuscan’s Pierangioli off-track, the Irishman Eamon Kelly climbed onto the podium, with the Briton Gordon Noble capable of a good comeback with his BMW3 going on to gain an important position among the crews that have to collect important points for the European Championship of which the Sanremo is the eighth and penultimate round. Next up is the Polish crew of Maciej Lubiak-Grzegorg Dachowski, also on BMW M3, then the Italian ‘Zippo’ with Nicola Arena, who has to manage the not easy Audi quattro on the winding roads of Sanremo and above all control his main rivals in the European Championship, of which he is currently the leader. Right behind him, separated by 5″6, finished the first leg by the Hungarian Tibor Erdi, who shares the Ford Sierra Cosworth 4×4 with Istvan Kerek on his side, Zippo ’s biggest rival in the hunt for the continental title. Just behind is Matteo Musti from Pavia with Claudio Biglieri, who is pushing to get in with his Porsche 911SC among the magnificent six in the classification.

Among the retired crews was Englishman Seb Perez, co-driven by Irishman Gary Mchelhinney, with the splendid Lancia Stratos with which he won the first Montalto test, retiring in the next one due to engine failure.