40th Sanremo Historic Rally. Pian di Nave at 9:00 a.m.: start your engines

The historic race started this morning with 39 crews in the Historic Rally and 23 in the regularity race. As was widely expected, the first stages saw ‘Pedro’ and Lucio Da Zanche take the lead, with Matteo Luise in third place. There are 23 crews in the Coppa dei Fiori leaving Pian di Nave, including Italian and European Rally Champion Maurizio Verini.

SANREMO (IM), 17 ottobre – Punctual as only a rally can be, at 9:00 this morning, the 40th Sanremo Historic Rally started from the starting platform in Pian di Nave, next to the Fort of Santa Tecla. First to take the start was Lucio Da Zanche, record holder of the historic race in western Liguria and six-time overall winner in the City of Flowers, accompanied by Daniele De Luis in a Porsche 911 RS for the first race of the season. Behind the driver from Valtellina was Matteo Luise, together with his wife Melissa Ferro who, after winning the Italian Fourth Group Title, abandoned her usual Ritmo to make her debut in her BMW M3. Immediately after, it was the turn of “Pedro” from Brescia with Emanuele Baldaccini as co-driver in his Subaru Legacy, which boasts four other victories in the Riviera dei Fiori race. The challenge for the Tricolore Title of the Italian Historic Car Rally Championship in Group 1 ended before it even began, with Sanremo crowning, thanks to the discards and coefficients, Giuliano Palmieri, who was absent, was crowned champion in Sanremo, thanks to the discards and coefficients, leaving the duel in the race between the two Porsche 911 S cars of Nello Parisi-Giuseppe D’Angelo and the twin car of Nicola Salin-Paolo Protta to compete for victory in the race.

Keep an eye on the race between the youngest crew (the youngest among the historic cars) Mattia Perosino-Alessia Binello with their Renault Clio 16S, local drivers Maurizio Pagella-Roberto Brea in a Porsche 911 SC RS and Riccardo Ciani from Sanremo, accompanied by Federico Verna at the wheel of a perfect Lancia 037. Silvio Leporace from Imperia has restored the Ritmo 130 Abarth, with which his father Vincenzo raced in Sanremo in the second half of the 1980s, to its original condition, setting off from Pian di Nave together with Matteo Baixin. Of the 41 crews registered for the Historic Rally, 39 took the start, followed on the special stages by the 23 crews of the Coppa dei Fiori regularity rally, among which the name of Maurizio Verini, Italian Champion (1974) and European Rally Champion (1975), stands out.

Pedro extends his lead in the morning. It is a duel fought second by second between Lucio Da Zanche, who won the opening stage at Vignai, and Pedro, who responded in the next three stages, arriving at the regrouping point in Piazza Colombo at 01.51 pm with a 4-second lead over his rival. Behind the two leaders is Matteo Luise, who is getting to know the BMW M3 he is driving for the first time, 1’15” behind Pedro and ahead of the acrobatic Tuscan Federico Gasperetti who, together with Federico Ferrari, is literally flying in the little Peugeot 205 Rallye 1.9.