The World Council of the FIA recently voted to grant full championship status to a brand-new rally series which aims to raise awareness of the new Super2000 rally formula. The series, which is being heavily promoted by satellite TV broadcaster Eurosport, will now be contested over four rounds this year. Three of the scheduled events will take place on asphalt, two of which (the Ypres and Madeira Rallies) are already a scheduled part of the 2006 FIA European Rally Championship, with the final event (the Rallye Sanremo) also counting towards the CSAI Italian Rally Championship.

Eurosport have been pushing hard for a Super2000 series and this inaugural championship will be organised by the body that runs the FIA World Touring Car Championship, hopefully ensuring that the fledgling series will get off to a highly professional start. The rallies will be run to the same rules as the FIA’s regional championships, meaning that Class A8 and certain other cars will not be admitted. There will also be an award exclusively to be contested by the drivers of Super2000 cars.

“Super2000 is a good chance to introduce new ideas into the sport,” Fiat’s Nic Gullino was quoted on the official WRC website as saying in reaction to the confirmation of the new Eurosport Super2000 championship.  “We have already seen how much spectators enjoy the S2000 cars, because they sound like and look like traditional rally cars.  This challenge is an opportunity to attract newcomer manufacturers into the sport,” he added.

The opening round of the new series, the Zulu Rally South Africa, which is bidding for a place on the WRC calendar in 2007, takes place later this month.  Held on gravel, the event is not only the first round of the Super2000 series, but is also the fourth round (of eight) of the African Rally Championship. Fiat has announced that they are sending a Grande Punto S2000, to be crewed by the up-and-coming driver Umberto Scandola, with Luigi Pirollo co-driving.

The new car, developed and built to the new Super2000 regulations, has won four of the five rallies it has entered thus far, but its African adventure will be its toughest test yet. Nevertheless, the Punto’s roll call of success thus far is impressive and includes victory in three of the first four events in this year’s CSAI Italian Rally Championship in the hands of Paolo Andreucci and Anna Andreussi, as well as a victory in the Fiat Rally held in Turkey last weekend. This latter victory came courtesy of Fiat stalwarts Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta, who are looking to secure this year’s European title after narrowly missing out last year following some impressive performances at the wheel of a Procar-run Punto S1600.

However, the main focal point of attention regarding the Zulu Rally is unquestionably the prospect of seeing the Grande Punto Rally pitted against other Super2000 category cars – namely the locally-homologated VW Polo and Toyota Corolla – for the very first time.
 

Both the Polo and Corolla have been in action in South Africa for some time, and have undergone continuous development in that time. The Super2000 formula can rightly be regarded as having been ‘born’ in South Africa, and whilst the Grande Punto Rally has swatted away the challenge from the turbocharged Subaru and Mitsubishi GpN machines in the Italian and European championships thus far this year, it will now be going head-to-head with similar-specification rally cars.

22-year-old Italian Rally driver Umberto Scandola has competed in around twenty Italian and European championship events since he made his rally debut back in 2003, his best result being second place overall on last year’s Rally di San Crispino – Terra di Romagna, an event which counted towards the 2005 Italian championship. He also took part in the WRC Wales Rally GB last year driving a Subaru Impreza WRX STi, and finished 10th in the GpN class. The Zulu Rally South Africa 2006 will thus prove to be a major test for the youngster. Based at the Durban International Convention Centre, the rally gets underway on Thursday 25th May. The rally comprises 12 special stages, encompassing 229.3km of competitive stage mileage, and 673km of road sections, making up a total route of 902km. Last year the event was won by an S2000 Toyota Corolla, but despite its success so far in Europe, the Grande Punto Rally remains underdeveloped on gravel, especially the specific conditions of the African championship around which the other contenders have been tailored. It is this fact, combined with a relatively inexperienced driver, which will probably preclude an ability to fight for overall honours – although a creditable performance can nevertheless be expected.

On a broader scale, the announcement of the inaugural Eurosport-supported Super2000 Rally Championship heralds increasing interest and support for the S2000 category, a category in whose development Fiat has been instrumental. Although not necessarily bringing on extra workload, as the extra events are largely those which were to be contested by N.technology Grande Punto S2000s in any event, the new championship helps to drive Fiat’s long-awaited return to top-class rallying even further along the road. With four wins out of five already this year, the factory Fiat Grande Punto Rally will nonetheless appear in another 15 major rallies before the 2006 season finally draws to a close, as it chases no less than three different championship titles.

Remaining calendar of events for Fiat Grande Punto Rally in 2006:

25-28 May; Zulu Rally South Africa; S2000
2-3 June; Rally San Marino; CIR
9-11 June; Platinum 63 Rally Poland; ERC
15-17 June; Rally del Salento; CIR
23-25 June; Belgium Ypres Westhoek Rally; ERC/S2000
7-9 July; Rally Bulgaria; ERC
13-15 July; Rally San Martino di Castrozza; CIR
3-5 August; Rally Vinho Da Madeira; ERC/S2000
25-27 August; Barum Rally Zlin; ERC
25-27 August; Rally Alpi Orientali; CIR
15-17 September; Rallye Sanremo; CIR/S2000
15-17 September; Rally Eko Elpa; ERC
13-15 October; Rally Costa Smeralda; CIR
20-22 October; Rallye d’Antibes; ERC
27-29 October; Rally di San Crispino; CIR

by Shant Fabricatorian