|
The
factory Grande Punto Abarth S2000s of
Giandomenico Basso and Anton Alén go into action
this morning on the 44th SATA Rallye Açores, the fourth round of the
Intercontinental Rally Challenge, which takes
place in Portugal over the next two days. Basso (with Mitia Dotta
alongside as usual) and Alén (with Timo Alanne
in the co-driver's seat) will be bidding to
close the performance gap to the Peugeot and
Skoda drivers in the Ponta Delgata based which features an all-gravel route
and is joining the IRC series for the first time
this year.
Basso, who is
fresh from winning the opening round of the FIA European
Rally Championship, the Rally 1000 Miglia held last month,
in a privately entered Grande Punto Abarth, is currently
placed second in the IRC series championship standings, three
points adrift of the leader, Belgian Freddy Loix who is in a
Peugeot 207.
The 44th SATA Rallye
Açores features an attractive route with unique backdrops to
the stages. From
the technical point of view, the surfaces are smooth and
compact, while the roads are for most of the time rather fast.
In addition to
the two official Grande Punto Abarth entries, there is a
third example of the Italian Super 2000 machine in the
running, with this privately-entered car is in the hands of Portuguese
driver Bernardo Sousa, who is being co-driven by Jorge Carvalho.
The Abarth factory
drivers' main rivals are all driving S2000 cars: Frenchman Nicolas Vouilloz
and Briton Kris Meeke are firm favourites in the IRC
title-defending Peugeot 207 while Finn Juho Hänninen and Czech Jan
Kopecký are in the new factory-run Skoda Fabia. In the IRC
2WD Cup, of which Fiat are the defending champions, Manuel
Villa is in action in his Fiat Punto S1600.
The 44th SATA Rallye
Açores takes place over two legs to be held today and
tomorrow. The rally officially got underway with the ceremonial start
last night at 5:30 pm local time before the traditional spectator-friendly
"superspecial" stage took place. Featuring side-by-side
action to the delight of the many rally fans, the superspecial - which was just
1.7 km long - saw Basso setting the best time of the Abarth trio with
the sixth quickest time overall, while Alén was eighth and Sousa
eleventh. Villa was 37th quickest, with 46 crews taking part.
Today (Friday 8),
will see the competitors tackling nine special stages, starting at 9:25 am (11:25 am CET)
and finishing at 8:00 pm (10:00 pm CET). Tomorrow (Saturday 9 May)
will see the
second and last leg getting underway at 8:25 am (10:25 am CET)
while the finish of the rally is scheduled for 8:05 pm (10:05 pm CET)
after a final nine special stages are completed. The course totals
240 km of stages to be raced against the stopwatch.
Meanwhile, another pair of factory-run Grande
Punto Abarth S2000 machines will also be in the
thick of the action this weekend as the Italian
Rally Championship (CIR) resumes with the
classic Targa
Florio Rally. The 93rd edition of this
historical event gets underway tomorrow in Palermo
and will take the crews along the traditional Madonie
circuit. Defending Abarth honour as well as
chasing maximum CIR points will be the team's
new signing for 2009, Luca Rossetti
(with Matteo Chiarcossi navigating), while the Italian star
will be capably backed up by youngster
Umberto Scandola (with the experienced Guido D’Amore
alongside).
IRC drivers'
championship standings (after 3 rounds): 1. Freddy Loix (B, Peugeot) 13 points; 2.
Giandomenico Basso (I, Abarth), Sébastien Ogier (F, Peugeot)
and Kris Meeke (GB, Peugeot) 10; 5. Nicolas Vouilloz (F,
Peugeot) 8.
|
