The 2009 Italian Rally Championship (CIR) got underway properly with the second round of the series this weekend, the 16th Rally Adriatico (April 3-4). With all the key factory teams skipped the series’ opening round, the Rally del Ciocco, last month, it meant that the championship’s biggest stars, including Abarth’s Luca Rossetti, Umberto Scandola and former Fiat factory driver Paolo Andreucci (Peugeot), were missing from the action. However the Abarth flag was capably flown in their absence by Renato Travaglia, driving a Trico/Island Motorsport-run Grande Punto Abarth S2000, and he won the event to move into the early championship lead.

The Rally Adriatico, which this year comprised 12 stages split over two legs, was all about Andreucci who dominated from start to finish in the factory Peugeot 207 S2000. He set fastest time on all of the first eight stages to build a 58.7 second cushion over Luca Rossetti who has joined the Abarth team this year, signed from Peugeot and vacating the seat that Andreucci has taken over after switching from Mitsubishi. Rossetti, who contested his first rally for the Abarth factory team on January’s Monte Carlo Rally (on which he abruptly retired on the opening stage), had worked his way up to second place by the fourth stage, one slot ahead of team-mate Scandola. Andreucci and Rossetti held onto these respective positions to lock out the first two finishing slots, while Scandola after laying claim to the final podium position lost 30 seconds on the penultimate stage due to fog interrupting his visibility which pushed him down to sixth place. In turn, this promoted another former works Fiat driver, Andrea Navarra, to third place in his Subaru Impreza STi.

In fifth place in the final classification was Travaglia in the Trico-run Grande Punto Abarth S2000, who collected 4 points to add to the 10 he picked up for winning the Rally del Ciocco. This means he retains the championship lead on 14 points ahead of Andreucci (10 points) and Rossetti (8 points). Travaglia was also the only driver of a Grande Punto Abarth to set a fastest scratch time on the 12-stage rally, as he went quickest on the penultimate stage (SS11 Avendale, 4.18 km). Several more privateer Grande Punto Abarth S2000s also featured in the rally results, with the best of these being Emanuele Dati (Errepi Racing) who was 11th at the end of the first stage and had moved up to seventh by SS3, holding that position to the finish. The other Grande Punto Abarth S2000s to appear in the final classification were Marco Signor (Sama Racing, 14th) while two Turks also took the chequered flag with Sercan Yazici (Lassa Rally Team, 21st) beating his countryman Burcu Cetinkaya (39th) to the line. Also of note, Tiziano Nerobutto (Hawk Racing Team) retired his diesel-powered Fiat Grande Punto R3D on SS9.

The next round of the CIR will be the Rally 1000 Miglia in a fortnight’s time. The remaining schedule will comprise the Targa Florio (May 10); San Marino (June 21); San Crispino (July 12); Rally del Friuli (August 30); Costa Smeralda (September 13); San Remo (September 27); and Rally di Como (October 25).

Italian Rally Championship, Rd 2 – 16th Rally Adriatico: 1. Andreucci-Andreussi (Peugeot 207 S2000), 1 hr 19’39”4; 2. Rossetti-Chiarcossi (Abarth Grande Punto S2000) + 1’00”4; 3. Navarra-Cerrai (Subaru Impreza) + 1’19”4; 4. Trentin-Zanella (Peugeot 207 S2000) + 1’29”5; 5. Travaglia-Pollet (Abarth Grande Punto S2000) + 1’32”0; 6. Scandola-D’Amore (Abarth Grande Punto S2000) + 1’33”8; 7. Dati-Giusti (Abarth Grande Punto S2000) + 1’57”0; 8. Ceccoli-Biondi (Mitsubishi Lancer) + 2’17”8.

Italian Rally Championship, Drivers (after 2 rounds): 1. Renato Travaglia (Abarth Grande Punto S2000) 14 points; 2. Paolo Andreucci (Peugeot 207 S2000) 10; 3. Luca Rossetti (Abarth Grande Punto S2000) and Tobia Cavallini (Peugeot 207 S2000) 8; 5. Andrea Navarra (Subaru Impreza) and Rudy Michelini (Peugeot 207 S2000).