24.06.2004 The sixth round of Italian Rally Championship, the Rally del Salento last weekend, ended with Paolo Andreucci and Anna Andreussi's Fiat Punto Abarth Rally taking second place overall
The sixth round of Italian Rally
Championship, the Rally del Salento last weekend, ended with Paolo Andreucci and
Anna Andreussi's Fiat Punto Abarth Rally taking second place overall.
The Italian reigning champion finished with less than 30 seconds behind the
winners, Andrea Dallavilla and Tania Canton in the Powercar-run Renault Clio
1600, who also won the Super 1600 Class, and with more than 30 seconds in hand
on Piero Longhi’s TRT Subaru Impreza STi.
Giandomenico Basso, the other title challenger in a Fiat Punto Abarth Rally, was
hit by ill luck once again, and was forced to retire after an incident during
the 23rd stage while he was running in an excellent 4th place.
Matteo Gamba and Marco Ruffini, in a second Procar Punto Abarth, came home 5th in Super 1600, 4:23.7 adrift of the winners, to win the Trofeo Fiat Punto Abarth, while Nicola Caldani and Patrizia Boero in an Etruria-run Punto rounded out the top ten, 2nd in the Trofeo, 6th in Super 1600, and 6:36.2 back. Gamba, who now takes the lead of Trofeo Punto in both the overall and under 27 classification, impressed onlookers after claiming the fastest time overall on the 21st stage.
Andreucci’s Fiat Punto Abarth Rally showed an excellent turn of pace, the Italian taking seven special stage victories. This speed helped him to finish the first leg as the rally leader and to retain this position until the fifth special stage of the second leg, despite suffering an off-road excursion on the sixteenth stage. In the final fight to the line with Dallavilla, Andreucci backed off so as not to risk losing a strong helping of points.
Basso had a good rally, the Italian was always able to keep his Super 1600 Fiat Punto Abarth Rally in the hunt, despite a mistake during the last special stage of the first leg which forced him to loose more than 1:30. A rapid second leg saw him recover from 7th to 4th, with fastest times posted on four special stages.
The Rally del Salento was also the 4th round for Fiat Stilo Abarth Trophy runners with Movisport pairing Andrea Perego and Claudio Vichioni scoring their second win of the year, after leading home Davide Medici and Daniele Benedetti by just 14.3 seconds.
Christian Chemin and Shary Dayana Pizzol were third in the Hawk Racing Stilo to make it a clean sweep for Under 25 drivers on the podium.
Thanks to this result Perego maintains leadership in both the overall and Under 25 classifications, ahead of Chemin and Medici, who now tie on points.
The next round of the Italian Rally Championship, as well as the Punto and Stilo Trofeo's, will be Rally San Martino di Castrozza, on 8th-10th July.
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