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Abarth
factory star Giandomenico Basso driving a 'private' Grande
Punto Abarth S2000 has won the 33rd edition of the Rally 1000 Miglia, the
third round of the Italian Rally Championship (CIR) and first
appointment on
the European Rally Championship (ERC) calendar. After three days and
thirteen special stages held last weekend, Basso, with Mitia Dotta occupying his usual place in the co-driver's
seat, took his third win on this all-asphalt event,
following his victories in 2004 and 2007, and despite problems
caused by a damaged throttle cable on SS11.
Organised by the
Automobile Club of Brescia, the Rally 1000 Miglia was run
for the first time in 1977 and since 1993 it has been
granted full F.I.A. validity while from 2001 it has been a
fixture on
the F.I.A. European Rally Championship calendar. After two years
of being located in Brescia and another two in Montichiari, the heart
of the event this year went back to Desenzano: both for the
ceremonial start and for the finish (together with the
prize-giving ceremony) which took place in Lungolago Anelli along the shores of Lake Garda, just
outside the historic town centre. Like last year, the rally
was followed by the “Rally 1000 Miglia Storico”, an historic
rally which attracts many of the most beautiful cars which
have written the “golden pages” of this sport.
Since 1985 the rally has been one of
the top events of the Italian Rally
Championship and every year it has
attracted the most qualified drivers
(in the last three years the entry
list has always numbered over one
hundred) while past winners include
Dario Cerrato, Fabrizio Tabaton,
Gianfranco Cunico, Piero Longhi,
Andrea Dallavilla, Renato Travaglia,
Miguel Campos, Giandomenico Basso
and Paolo Andreucci.
The rally is run through one of the
most picturesque parts of Northern
Italy and all the stages take place
on asphalt roads: it consists of two
days with seven different special
stages (all of them run twice) plus
one very short "superspecial" stage
on the “South Garda Kartdrome”
track. The total distance of the rally is around 960 km
while the and the thirteen special stages make up a total
timed distance of about 265 kilometres.
Some of the stages (the shortest
apart from the superspecial is
about 11 km while the longest is
over 30 km) are the same as in past
years but some of the others are brand new.
Basso,
driving for the private Team D'Ambra on this event, immediately claimed the
provisional lead of the rally on Thursday night's opening
3.87 km "superspecial" stage to take a slender 3.7 second advantage
into the group of six stages that comprised Friday's Leg 1. However
fastest crew on the first stage of the morning (SS2, 14.30 km)
were Cavallini and Farnocchia in a Peugeot 207 S2000 although the
rally lead went to
Travaglia and Granai who were driving in this event in a
Peugeot 207 S2000. Travaglia though was to suffer with a lot
of problems during the opening day’s stages, firstly with
brake issues and then through wrong tyre choices.
This meant that Cavallini
wrested away the
rally lead on SS3 which he held for two tests until on SS5 a poor
time by the Peugeot driver allowed Basso to squeeze back
into the lead. The next stage (SS6) saw Travaglia returning
to the top of the leaderboard. However on the final stage of the day (SS7)
Basso posted the fastest time, 5.6 seconds clear of
Travaglia which allowed him to close down the gap to just 1.8 seconds
as the crews rolled into overnight parc ferme.
Day two was
characterised by several changes of weather conditions which
caused the drivers to compete under much
pressure and without the total control on their strategies
(and above all making the choice of which tyres to use very
difficult). Basso comfortably won the opening stage of the
day (SS8) by 11.5 seconds to take control at the top with a 9.7 second
advantage over
Travaglia. The next stage (SS9) saw Travaglia losing more
than 40 seconds meaning Basso was able to extend his
advantage to 43.7 seconds. On
SS10 that gap climbed to 47.9 seconds which was fortunate as
on SS11 Basso dropped 32.6 seconds to Travaglia as he
grappled
with throttle problems, cutting his lead to 28.6 seconds.
The Abarth driver responded on the penultimate stage (SS12)
by going quicker than anyone else - his fifth fastest stage
time of the rally - and in doing so he pushed the gap up to 35.3 seconds
which allowed him to control his advantage going through the
thirteenth and final test of the event.
With Basso
winning, Travaglia coming second and a recovering Cavallini
grabbing the final podium step, fourth
place went to Alessandro Perico (Peugeot 207 S2007). Next up
were two young rally drivers: Michelini in a Peugeot 207
S2000 and Signor in a Grande Punto Abarth S2000. The two
battled hard all rally with the honour of fifth place
eventually going to the former. Signor, who was behind the
wheel of a private Abarth entered by Sama Racing, never ran
outside the top six and was as high as third place at one
point; however he too was hampered by wrong tyre choices.
The win puts
Giandomenico Basso into the provisional points lead of the
ERC after the opening encounter. The Abarth driver now has
15 points with fellow Italian Renato Travaglia two points
further back in the classification. Michal Solowow and Luca
Betti are next up in the championship standings, the pair
are jointly on 6 points. The next round of the ERC (round 2)
is the Istanbul Rally on May 1-3 while the next appointment
of the CIR calendar (round 4) is the Rally Targa Florio on
May 10.
33rd Rally
1000 Miglia, Final Classification:
1. Basso-Dotta (Abarth Grande Punto
S2000) in h 32’39"6; 2. Travaglia-Granai (Peugeot 207 S2000)
at 33"6; 3. Cavallini-Farnocchia (Peugeot 207 S2000) at
56"5; 4. Perico-Carrara (Peugeot 207 S2000) at 1’12"9; 5.
Michelini-Perna (Peugeot 207 S2000) at 2’07"7; 6.
Signor-Barone (Grande Punto Abarth S2000) at 2'34''5.
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