The 31st International Rally Golfo dell'Asinara is upon us: scrutineering will begin on Thursday, June 4th, while engines will roar on Friday and Saturday. It's time to browse the list of 63 crews registered for the Automobile Club Sassari event. A total of 55 competitors have chosen to take part in the Rally Moderno, which serves as the second round of the Aci Sport Zone Rally Cup, the Sardinian Cup (Zone 10), and the Regional Championship. Following the Rally are the eight cars entered in the Historic Rally, the third round of the Aci Sport Sardinia Delegation Regional Championship. This morning, the Centro Martini in Sassari hosted the presentation press conference.
Of the 55 cars competing in the Modern Championship, seven will belong to the top Rally2/R5 class, including the Skoda Fabia R5 driven by 2025 winners Andrea Pisano and Salvatore Musselli. The Magliona Motorsport crew, consisting of the driver from Osilo and the navigator from Gallura, will start with the number 1 on their side panels. The number 2 will go to Marino Gessa from Arbus, president of the Sardegna Racing team, who finished second last year and will this time share the cockpit of a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 with Nicola Colombo. Giuseppe Mannu (third in 2025) will be navigated by Giuseppe Maccioni in a Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2 under the New Racing for Genova banner. Sport Management drivers Loris Ronzano and Gloria Andreis will be coming from Italy, opting for the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, as will Vittorio Masselli and Massimiliano Frau, as well as Autoservice Sport drivers Antonio Dettori and Marco Demontis. Meteco Corse driver Francesco Gally and co-driver Paolo Cottu from Nuoro will be using the Evo version of the Czech car.
In S2000, Marcello Sanna and Luca Pisano will compete in a Peugeot 207, while Rally3 will be contested by the three Renault Clios of the crews Luca Tilocca-Nicola Tocco and Giuliano Tilocca-Mauro Atzei, both of Porto Cervo Racing, and Alberto Sassi-Gabriele Romei. The Toyota Yaris Gr of Antonio and Giuseppe Perazzona will aim for the R1T Naz 4x4 class, while in R3, the Renault Clio RS of Alessandro Scurosu and Gian Domenico Piccinnu will compete. Among the nine Peugeot 208s competing in the crowded Rally4 class will be those of Enrico Piu-Gian Mario Fodde, Alberto Contini-Fabrizio Musu, Alessio Cuccheddu-Davide Panu, and Stefano Marrone-Francesco Fresu. While Rally4/R2 will be a three-way battle, seven crews will compete for the lead in Rally5: six, including Ugo Valdarchi and Giorgio Aricò, will be in Renault Clio RS, joined by the Suzuki Swift Sport of Samuel Soletta and Jean-Claude Vallino. Among the other classes, the largest will be N2, with eight cars on the starting grid, six of which will be Citroën Saxò VTSs, including the all-female Mrc Sport crew of Nicoletta Deidda and Giustina Cossu. While the driver from San Giovanni Suergiu will be the only woman behind the wheel, it's worth noting that there will be fourteen female co-drivers in the Modern class and one in the Historic class.
Six of the eight crews starting the Rally Storico Golfo dell'Asinara will be using Group Four cars. Three will be Team Bassano's, starting with the Peugeot 205 GTIs of Pietro Pes di San Vittorio and Alessandro Frau (fresh from their excellent performance at the Rally Costa Smeralda Storico, a round of the FIA European Championship) and Enrico Pes di San Vittorio and Nicola Romano. The third will be the Ritmo 130 Abarth of Leopoldo Di Lauro and Giovanni Nuvoli. Three will also be Autoservice Sport's standard-bearers, starting with the winners of the last edition, Marco Casalloni and Giovanni Figoni (Peugeot 205 Rallye). Also in the yellow and blue are Pietro Ruiu-Arminio Alicicco (Alfa Romeo 33) and Alessandro Leoni-Loretta Arca, who in their Ford Escort Rs2000 will compete in the Third Group with Massimo Dasara and Massimo Boni, standard bearers of Hrt Corse in a BMW 320. In the Fourth Group also Roberto Zedda and Alessio Fichera in a Peugeot 205 of Sardegna Racing.
The preliminary operations will begin tomorrow: route reconnaissance in road vehicles, distribution of roadbooks, license plates, and race numbers, and, in the service park, technical checks, which will continue into Friday morning. Then the engines will be fired up.
The route includes 73.50 timed kilometers divided into ten special stages (five stages to be repeated twice) and two stages. Before the start, the crews will have the opportunity to find the right feeling with the car in the new shakedown on Friday morning (9-12) along the iconic Scala di Giocca. The ceremonial start will be hosted in the heart of Castelsardo at 2:30 pm on Friday, as in 2025. And from there, the crews will head towards the technical and complex opening special stage, the Martis-Nulvi (7.30 km, 3:20 pm and 6:45 pm), and the classic San Lorenzo (7.47 km, 3:50 pm and 7:15 pm), in Osilo, followed by the regrouping in Sorso (4:15 pm). The cars will then return to Sassari, to the service park in Piazzale Segni (5:15 PM), and will undergo a stamp check in Chiaramonti (6:42 PM), a first for the team, before making their second run through the stages. The day will conclude at 8:00 PM, with the nightly parc fermé in Piazza d'Italia, Sassari, a popular meeting place that has already warmly welcomed the finish of a stage in the past.
The rally's Saturday will be a hotly contested affair. At 9:00 a.m., competitors will leave Piazza d'Italia and head to the service park to prepare for the challenging trio of special stages: Codrongianos (6.82 km, 10:10 a.m. and 1:40 p.m.), Muros-Ossi (6.42 km, 10:40 a.m. and 2:10 p.m.), and Usini (8.73 km, 11:10 a.m. and 2:40 p.m.), this time presented in a slightly revised version. After the first lap, the cars will return to Piazza d'Italia for a regrouping. Once the second run through the three special stages is complete, the awards ceremony will take place, scheduled for 4:00 p.m. in Porto Torres, another welcome confirmation.
The event is organized by the Automobile Club Sassari with the support of the Sardinia Region, the municipalities of Sassari, Castelsardo, and Porto Torres, the patronage of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), and partners Testoni Lubricants, Bunker Point, Sardares, Autoplus, Luca Deiana, Tenute Soletta, and R Italian Trophy. Several shipping agreements are in place.
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International Rally of the Gulf of Asinara: Over 60 cars at the start
The 31st edition of the event organized by the Automobile Club Sassari starts on Thursday 4 June.