72nd Rallye Sanremo, a thousand reasons to be part of the action

With entries open (until 10 October), the clock is ticking fast towards Wednesday 15 October, when competitors in the Italian Rally Championship (and the Italian Historic Car Rally Championship) will arrive in the City of Flowers to kick off a long weekend that will see historic and modern cars compete in special stages in the West Liguria hinterland on Friday 17 Saturday 18 and Sunday 19. As always, the race that will close the two top Italian rally championships will be hosted by Sanremo and its hinterland, which for five days will be crowned the capital of Italian motorsport.

SANREMO (IM), 30 settembre – With the sixth and penultimate round of the Italian Rally-Sparco Championship now over, all eyes immediately turned to Sanremo, where the excitement of the race will begin on Wednesday 15 October. As is traditional for the Western Liguria race, there will be multiple competitions moving from Sanremo to the hinterland for a very long weekend. The main one will be the 72nd Rallye Sanremo, which will award several Italian titles (Junior, Manufacturers, Co-drivers, Teams, Tuners, to name a few) in the CIAR-Sparco championship, the most important of which will be the overall title, which is still up for grabs between the eternal rivals chasing their fifth overall crown: Giandomenico Basso (first in 2007, 2016, 2019, 2021) and Andrea Crugnola (winner in 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024), who have monopolised the CIAR over the last five years, with Basso from Veneto winning the western race five times (2024, 2023, 2013, 2012, 2008), while Crugnola is still chasing his first overall victory, even though he has been on the podium three times (2024, 2022, 2021), winning the Promotion category in 2019 and 2018, as well as the Junior category in 2013 and, as a youngster, the Twingo Trophy in 2012 and the Suzuki Cup in 2009. The two arrive in Sanremo separated by less than ten points: Basso (92.5), Crugnola (83), a situation that forces both of them not to do too many mathematical calculations, but to unleash their horses in the special stages.

In addition to the challenges for the Italian titles at Sanremo, the competitors in the Lancia Ypsilon, Toyota and Suzuki Rally Cup trophies will also be protagonists, as well as the Pirelli Academy Trophy and Michelin Italian Trophy, which will be no less heated than the battles for the overall classification. At this point, all that remains is to wait until midnight on Friday, October 10, when entry closes, to find out who will be competing in the 72nd Rallye Sanremo.

This year too, are about to begin the 72nd Rallye Sanremo, the 40th Sanremo Historic Rally, the 15th Sanremo Leggenda and the 39th Coppa dei Fiori, events that are part of the Calendar of Events of the Sanremo Municipal Tourism Department. The races will be hosted in the most iconic locations of the City of Flowers: from the Fort of Santa Tecla, the historic 18th-century building and museum complex of the Liguria Regional Museums Department, which will host all the race headquarters and nerve centres of the event, to Porto Sole, where the Rally Village and the televised stage of the “modern” Rally will be located. Pian di Nave will be the starting point for each race and where the winners and all the crews who have completed the races will be celebrated. For fans who want to see the cars up close and meet the protagonists of the races, there are daytime and night-time regroupings in Piazza Colombo and the Service Parks located at the Old railway Station in Piazzale Carlo Dapporto. For those who do not wish to travel inland to watch the Special Stages, Sanremo offers thousands opportunities to enjoy the days of mid-autumn.

The long Sanremo 2025 motorsport weekend begins on Wednesday 15 October with the modern and historic rally crews converging on Sanremo for sporting checks and scrutineering, and the opening of the two Service Parks, the modern one at the Vecchia Stazione and the historic one at Porto Sole. After the final sporting checks and scrutineering for the two Italian championships on Thursday 16 October, the engines will be started on Friday 17 October. The historic competitors will open the special stages on the first day, competing in two passes on eight special stages alternated with regrouping in Piazza Colombo in Sanremo and the Service Park in Porto Sole. Saturday will be the second day of competition with three more special stages and a regrouping in Calata Anselmi in Imperia. While the historic competitors battle it out against the clock, on the morning of Saturday 18 October, the CIAR competitors will test their cars on the San Romolo stage, before setting off from the starting platform at Pian di Nave (in front of the Forte di Santa Tecla) and immediately afterwards competing in the Porto Sole show stage, which will be broadcast live on television, before completing three more special stages and returning to Piazza Colombo for the overnight regrouping. On Sunday 19 October, the other eight special stages for the CIAR-Sparco crews will take place, before returning to Pian di Nave at 4 p.m. to celebrate all the competitors who will have covered the 481 total km of the race, 118,42 of which are timed km.