The Fort of Santa Tecla beating heart of “Sanremo”

The ancient fort, restored as a cultural centre, will bethe hub for all the races that will take place on the roads of the western Ligurian hinterland. Not only the Italian championships, but also the 15th Rally Sanremo Leggenda, the 39th Coppa dei Fiori regularity race and the Ruote nella Storia historic car rally.

SANREMO (IM), 14 ottobre – Every event has a beating heart. The 72nd Rallye Sanremo and the 40th Sanremo Historic Rally, as well as the 15th Sanremo Leggenda, the 39th Coppa dei Fiori and the Ruote nella Storia rally, all events that are part of the Events Calendar of the Tourism Department of the Municipality of Sanremo, will find their home in the Fort of Santa Tecla, the historic 18th-century building, Museum Centre of the Liguria Regional Museums Department, a space that will host the sporting checks of the crews of each race in its rooms, as well as the race management, the secretariat, the timing centre and the press room. Around a hundred people will be working feverishly like bees in a hive for five days (from Wednesday 15 to Sunday 18 October). Most of the time, they will not have time to leave their workstations to eat at nearby bars or restaurants.

“We have always solved the situation by turning to a catering service, which this year will be provided by the young people of SPES” (an association that helps young people with disabilities enter the world of work) says Sergio Maiga, president of AC Ponente Ligure, the organisation responsible for organising the Città dei Fiori competitions. During the opening hours of the press room from Thursday 16 October from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on other days from 7.30 a.m. to 9 p.m., in the Auditorium of Santa Tecla, there will be a continuous screening of the documentary film “We are the people – a story of dreams and fears” made by the young Pietro Borgogno, who began his career as an emerging director with a film that tells the story of the lives of the Spes children, their life experiences and an exciting day aboard rally cars organised for them by ASD Rallyterapia.

The legend of Sanremo pursues the Italian championship with the 15th Sanremo Leggenda. The crews participating in the rally included in the Zone-2 Rally Cup, the 15th Sanremo Leggenda, will have to undergo sporting checks (Forte di Santa Tecla) on Wednesday 15 October from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and on Thursday 16 October from 7.30 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. Scrutineering at the Service Park at the Old railway Station will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Friday and from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on Saturday 18, followed by the Shake Down from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in San Romolo. The race will start on Saturday 18 October at 6.30 pm to tackle the two special stages of Carpasio-Ville San Pietro (14.72 km at 7.29 pm) and Cesio-Caravonica (6.36 km at 8.23 pm) before returning to Piazza Colombo at 9.58 pm for the overnight regrouping. On Sunday 19 October, the race will restart from Piazza Colombo at 9.40 a.m. for two passes on the Vignai (14.23 km at 11.01 a.m. and 3.51 p.m.) and Ghimbegna-San Romolo (10.51 km at 11.35 a.m. and 4.25 p.m.) special stages interspersed with a regrouping in Piazza Colombo at 1.05 p.m. and a Service Park at the Vecchia Stazione, before returning to Pian di Nave at 6.05 p.m. for the awards ceremony after the competitors have covered 297.14 km, 70.56 of which are divided into six special stages

The stopwatch specialists will compete in the 39th Coppa dei Fiori. Created a year after the Sanremo Historic Rally, the Coppa dei Fiori, valid for the Italian Historic Regularity Rally Championship (CIRAR), is now in its 39th edition and will attract competitors to Sanremo at the Forte di Santa Tecla on Wednesday 15 October (8:00-11:00 a.m.) and Thursday, 16 October (3:30-5:30 p.m.) for sporting and technical checks on Thursday, 16 October from 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. in the Porto Sole service park. The race will largely follow the route of the 39th Sanremo Historic Rally, starting at 10.30 a.m. from Pian di Nave to tackle the five Precision Tests (double passage at Vignai and Ghimbegna-San Romolo, one on Coldirodi-Perinaldo) interspersed with a regrouping in Piazza Colombo at 2.42 p.m., where competitors will return at 6.30 p.m. for the night regrouping. On Sunday, the stopwatches will start again at 12:00 for the three Precision Tests (Carpasio, Cesio-Caravonica, Aurigo-Rezzo) with a regrouping in Imperia Calata Anselmi for a visit to the naval museum and a short light lunch at 14:53 and grand finale in Pian di Nave at 19:59. The race covers 371.98 kilometres, including 98.840 kilometres of Precision Tests.

Everything is ready for Ruote nella Storia (Wheels in History) in Sanremo, a ‘rally tour’ included in the event programme that will stage the final round of both the Italian Rally-Sparco Championship and the Italian Historic Rally Championship along the roads of the Riviera dei Fiori. From 17 to 18 October, alongside the competitors taking part in the two competitions, participants in the rally will be able to enjoy a “drivers” weekend’, parading, after leaving the starting platform, at the wheel of their cars marked with specific numbers so that they can be recognised by the race officials along the route: three special stages covering almost forty kilometres of roads closed to traffic and a total of around 180 kilometres of driving for a unique and exclusive experience on some of the special stages that have written the history of Sanremo and rallying. After a free morning to enjoy the final preparations before the start of the 72nd Rallye Sanremo, the tour participants will leave the Rallye Sanremo platform and set off at 11.30 am from Sanremo Pian di Nave, before moving on to Imperia Calata Anselmi for a visit to the naval museum. After a light lunch, preceded by a relay car, they will head inland to tackle the Carpasio-Ville San Pietro (14,72 km), Cesio-Caravonica (6.36 km) and Aurigo-Rezzo (18.30 km) stages. Upon arrival at the platform in Sanremo, scheduled for 7:00 p.m., all participants will receive a commemorative plaque of the event.