Giandomenico Basso's challenge for victory on the 31st Rally 1000 Miglia, the third round of the 2007 Italian Rally Championship (CIR), will get underway this evening with the opening 'superspecial' stage. The long-running rally is also the opening round of the 2007 FIA European Rally Championship and the Italian - the reigning champion in this series - will face some very stiff opposition, not only from the Italian crews contesting the CIR, but from two privately-entered Grande Punto Abarth S2000s in the hands of Turk Volkan Isik and Pole Michal Solowow who will be looking for European points.

Asphalt specialist Basso, who will have regular co-driver Mitia Dotta alongside, needs a good result on his favoured surface as he is fighting his way back up the CIR leaderboard after a somewhat disappointing start to the season. The highly experienced Italian, who last year claimed a double crown by winning the FIA European Rally Championship as well as the inaugural Intercontinental Rally Challenge, was switched by the Abarth team management to replace Paolo Andreucci on the CIR as the Grande Punto Abarth-mounted champion had moved on to Mitsubishi Ralliart Italia for 2007. With the predominance of asphalt in the series Basso's vast experience on his favoured surface should help to give the factory team an edge.

However it all started badly on the opening round, the Rally del Ciocco held last month, and while Andreucci had stormed to victory on this event last year to give the Grande Punto Abarth S2000 a winning start to its rallying career, Basso this year retired on the first stage. However the Italian bounced back on round two, the Rally di San Marino earlier this month, claiming a solid second place on the all-gravel rally. This gave him 8 invaluable championship points to put him into fourth place. His rivals have also struggled, keeping the field even: Andreucci inherited victory on the opening round, but he retired in San Marino, while Piero Longhi who chased Andreucci all the way to the Italian title last year, won this event, but he was starting from scratch as he had retired on the Rally del Ciocco.

Luca Cantamessa (11 points) leads the Italian championship standings after two rounds, thanks to his two top-10 finishes; Longhi and Andreucci (10 points) with a win apiece tie just one point adrift, while Basso is snapping on their heels in fourth (8 points). Alessandro Perico (7 points) and Andrea Perego (6 points) are next up.

Basso will start this evening at number 1 in his factory Abarth & Co. Spa-entered Grande Punto Abarth S2000, thanks to his FIA A-seeding, he is the only driver who holds this FIA category on the event. His Super2000-specification Grande Punto Abarth S2000 will run in Class N4 as usual.
 

A top-class entry list will challenge him for CIR honours, with a pair of Super2000 specification Peugeot 207s expected to be the dark horses at the top of the leaderboard. Youngster Luca Rossetti in the Racing Lions entry posted note of his intent this year on the Rally del Ciocco, where he led from the first stage to the penultimate test when a puncture cost him 5 minutes and gifted the victory to Andreucci. Alessandro Perico also expects to get his hands on a new S2000 Peugeot for the first time, his car entered by Twister Corse. He finished an excellent third on the Rally del Ciocco in a little Super1600 class Renault Clio, and then drove a four wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo IX on the gravel-surface Rally di San Marino to take advantage of the conditions and record points. Also of interest will be the factory entered turbodiesel-powered Grande Punto R3D which will be pedalled once again by youngsters Davide Gatti and Maurizio Barone. After a difficult start to the CIR the pair will be aiming to show off the potential of this car on the 1000 Miglia this weekend.

The usual top-class Italian field of turbocharged GpN-mounted runners has been assembled to challenge for CIR honours. These are headed by the reigning champion Paolo Andreucci, who will drive a factory Mitsubishi Evo IX along with 2007 team mate Matteo Gamba; while the alway-quick Luca Cantamessa, Renato Travaglia, Andrea Dallavilla, Sandro Sottile and Andrea Perego will also be out in action in the rally-proven Evo IX. Tough opposition will come from the other GpN mount: Piero Longhi and Andrea Aghini will be driving a pair of Subaru Italia-entered Impreza STi racers.

As the 31st Mille Miglia combines with the opening round of the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) a top-class list of runners has also been drawn from overseas. And these crews are headed by two Grande Punto Abarth-entered teams, the highly experienced Volkan Işık and Guray Karacar will drive the Fiat Motorsports Turkey entry, who were the first team to have run the new Abarth-built Super2000 car outside of the factory set-up. Opposition to them will come from another very successful crew: Polish duo Michal Solowow and Maciek Baran will also drive the Grande Punto Abarth S2000 as they kick off their own ERC challenge, while a final Abarth runner will be Corrado Fontana. Also in the running for ERC honours will be two Bulgarian drivers, Krum Donchev (GpN Impreza STi) and Dimitar Iliev (GpN Evo IX) as well Hungarian Juraj Sebalj (GpN Evo IX). Finally the always rapid Frenchman Simon Jean-Joseph will be an unknown in the mix, as he will be disadvantaged by driving the smaller Super1600 Citroen C2, run by PH Sport. The ERC chasing crews aren't registered for the CIR so they won't take points away from Basso in his search for Italian points.

The Rally 1000 Miglia will get underway at 20:22 this evening when Basso leads the field down the start ramp in his Grande Punto Abarth S2000 for the short opening 4.59-km "Daniel Bonara" spectator-friendly superspecial stage. Fifteen stages make up the rally this year with 8 being held tomorrow and 6 on Saturday, before the 31st edition concludes at the Piazza S. Maria in Montichiari at 1900 on Saturday 21st April. Along the way 1085.12 kms will be covered by the crews, with 277.84 km of these being raced against the clock.