After retiring from the opening round of the Italian Rally Championship (CIR), Giandomenico Basso in the factory-entered Grande Punto Abarth faced the second round, the 35th Rally di San Marino, last weekend knowing that he needed nothing less than to grab a very healthy haul of points on his and the car's unfavoured surface - gravel. With reigning champion Andrea Andreucci having taken ten points away from the opening round last month Basso simply could afford no mistakes, although he could draw some comfort from the fact that his other big title rival, Piero Longhi, had similarly left the Rally del Ciocco with no points.

A top-class entry saw 86 cars arrived for the 35th edition of the Rally di San Marino with no less than 64 cars entered in Class N4, the class entry boosted by additional Mitsubishi and Subaru runners contesting their respective manufacturer cups'. International flavour came with drivers arriving from Greece, Great Britain, Poland, Russia and France in search of points for the FIA South West Cup. At the front though Basso would have his work cut out as he faced the challenge of championship leader Paolo Andreucci in the Mitsubishi Ralliart-entered Evo IX and the gravel specialist Matteo Gamba in a similar specification machine. Fresh from his second place finish on the Rally del Ciocco Luca Cantamessa would also line-up in a Evo IX as would Alessandro Perico who, following his excellent third place in the Renault Clio S1600 on the Rally del Ciocco was hoping to gain a healthy chunk of points by entering a four-wheel-drive car on this gravel event as he awaits the arrival of his brand-new Peugeot 207 S2000. Multiple champion Renato Travaglia (not championship registered) and the always-quick Andrea Dallavilla were also Evo IX mounted. Piero Longhi and Andrea Aghini meanwhile would lead out the Subaru assault, the duo both driving the Impreza STi Spec-C machines.

The 35th Rally di San Marino would comprise of two legs, 13 special stages, 7 service parks and 3 regroupings in Sant’Angelo in Vado (PU), The rally was set to take off at 8.01am on Saturday 31st March from the Multieventi Centre in Serravalle, to come back under the chequered flag at 15.15pm on Sunday 1st April, after 763.43 km of which 194.35 km would be against the clock.

From the start Andreucci leapt straight into the rally lead, taking a 4.6 second lead over Longhi at the end of SS2, the 15.23 km long first running of Sestino, with Basso coming in 0.7 seconds further back in third. Andreucci maintained his lead through the next stage SS3 (Mercatello 1, 11.50km) but fourth fastest for Basso dropped him down one place. The third stage was the second running of Sestino and Basso went second fastest behind the stage winner Longhi to go into second place as Longhi assumed the overall rally lead, aided by the sudden retirement of the stage of the erstwhile rally leader Andreucci, a very welcome result for the Abarth team as the former Fiat factory driver went into the Rally di San Marino holding the championship points lead.

The second time round Mercatello (SS6) saw Longhi and Basso again first and second fastest, the Subaru driver stretching his lead to 18.5 seconds over the Abarth pilot. Basso then won his first stage of the gravel event (SS8, Sestino 3) to reduce the gap to 17 seconds dead, but on the final stage of the day (SS9, Mercatello 3) Longhi just pipped his rival to go into overnight parc ferme with a 17.6 second lead over Basso.

The second leg of the 35th Rally di San Marino would see four stages contested, the surviving crews heading off from Parc Ferme and going twice round the Città di Castello (27.71km) stage and twice round the much shorter Monte Vicino (10.56km).
 

Sitting on 8 potential championship points, asphalt-specialist Basso would be taking no risks on the last four unfamiliar stages as he targeted getting his CIR title challenge off the mark. Fastest time for Longhi on the first pass of  Città di Castello (SS10) and fourth for Basso extended the gap to 30.3 seconds, while Basso then took his second fastest scratch time of the rally on the next test Monte Vicino (SS11) to peg the gap back to 28.4 seconds. Longhi responded on the penultimate stage (SS12, Città di Castello) to raise the gap to 35.5 seconds.

Basso held as 11.7 second advantage to third placed Renato Travaglia, but as the Mitsubishi driver wasn't entered in the Italian championship Basso was able to slow up and preserve his car on the final stage of the rally (SS13, Monte Vicino 2), and although he lost 12.7 seconds to Travaglia, who won the final stage letting him squeeze through into second place on the timesheets by just 1 second, Basso was able to hold onto his second place in the CIR classification and step up on to podium well satisfied with his strong finish on gravel.

"This was a contest I had wrote off," said a pleased Basso at the finish, "because I have only taken part twice and with different special stages. It is a result, that therefore satisfies a lot: we gained two fastest tests out of ten, remaining constantly on the podium and in second position. During last the two stages we have slowed down the rhythm without risk, allowing Travaglia to pass as on the classification of the championship he does not take points. After the misfortune of the 'Ciocco' we are able to re-enter the championship." Eight points puts Basso into fourth place in the CIR championship standings, just three points behind series leader Luca Cantamessa who 11 points after gaining 8 for second on the Rally del Ciocco to add to the 3 he gets for 6th place on the Rally di San Marino.

Interest in the new Super2000 category was boosted by Luca Rossetti who finished an excellent fourth in the Peugeot 207 S2000, although he couldn't get close to Basso's pace in the Grande Punto Abarth S2000. Further back Giuseppe Grossi and Simona Girelli finished 11th overall in their new Scuderia Grifone-entered Grande Punto Abarth S2000, the pair claiming an excellent third place in the Trofeo Rally Terra, the category which they were chasing. There was ill-luck though for Davide Gatti and Maurizio Barone who retired their factory-entered their 1.9 Multijet-powered Grande Punto Abarth R3D on SS2.

35th Rally San Marino - Final Classification: 1. Longhi/Imerito (Subaru Impreza STi) 2 hr 07'51"2; 2. Basso/Dotta (Grande Punto Abarth S2000) + 33"5; 3. Gamba/Guzzi (Mitsubishi Evo IX) + 52"5; 4. Rossetti/Chiarcossi (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 1'10"8; 5. Dallavilla/Rocco (Mitsubishi Evo IX) + 1'16"1.

Italian Rally Championship Classification (after 2 rounds): 1. Cantamessa (Mitsubishi) 11 points; 2. Andreucci (Mitsubishi), Longhi (Subaru) 10; 4. Basso (Grande Punto Abarth) 8; 5. Perico (Mitsubishi) 7; 6. Perego (Mitsubishi) 6.