Rally of Ciocco 2003

Rally of Ciocco Preview

The Italian rally championship is back more exciting than even with the event of Rally of Ciocco and Serchio Valley. This is the first round of the championship which will be run on the tarmac, and anybody expects from the Super1600 the final success, because of the "small cars" are favoured by the absence of any WRC car, which were admitted at the first championship round, the Tutta Terra Toscana, because of the coincidence with the Challenge Rally Terra.
The best chance is available for the current Italian champion Renato Travaglia, to show to remain the tarmac leader, after leaving the cockpit of the powerful 206 WRC for a less rocking 206 Super1600 assisted by Racing Lions.
The Trentin driver will be fiercely constrasted by the local star, Paolo Andreucci, at the wheel of the Fiat Punto Super1600 developed by N Technology and supported by Procar. The tuscan driver will try to redeem to the penalty inflicted at the Tutta Terra Toscana, where the driver didn't match at a time check. Andreucci will take advantage the extreme knowledge of the stages of Ciocco, which sorround his home area.
The event panorama of the top drivers that aim to the victory, is completed by the Travaglia team mate, Andrea Aghini, at the wheel of the Peugeot 206 Super1600, and Giandomenico Basso, after the worldwide experience of the Junior 2002 championship, with a Fiat Punto assisted by Trico. The Veneto based driver will keep more hopefully the pace, after the bad luck left him on the last stage of the Tutta Terra Toscana, where he had to retire for a mechanical failure of the gearbox.
Do not forget are Dallavilla, Scorcioni, Bettega, and Ceccoli all with Super1600 cars, namely Fiat Punto, and the very long formation of group N drivers, with minor chances because of the event is fully run on asphalt ground: Galli, Longhi, Fiorio, and Cunico will give good performances with their 4WD cars.

Basso wins his first rally in the CIR

The Rally of Ciocco, the second round of the Italian rally championship (CIR), has been dominated largely by the Fiat drivers. The eighteen special stages, run on about an half dozen of tracks, completely on tarmac, showed the real performance and lightness of the Super1600 cars versus the great traction of the Group N cars, which sport better on hard grounds such as the gravel stages and the wet asphalt.

All the drivers and their teams were doubtful before starting the season on which the best car were to compete in the Italian rallying top series and nobody has been convinced after the first two rounds of the championship: the Super1600 cars remain the most competitive on any asphalt ground and the production cars, i.e. the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 and the Subaru Impreza STi, keep the pace on the gravel, although some surprises have been arised in some stages of both the events, where Andreucci spotted amazing times even on the gravel and sometimes Galli and Cunico were able to match the times of the Super1600 cars on the dirties asphalt tracks or very driven stages.

On the drivers side, the most important fact is that Andreucci seems to be the fastest driver on any ground, because of the times from the Tutta Terra Toscana and the last event, the Rally of Ciocco, although the scored points don't project the Tuscan driver in the topmost position of the championship.

Andreucci, favoured by the very expert knowledge of the Ciocco and Serchio Valley stages, starts with the best time on the first stage of Friday leg, followed my some mere seconds by Giandomenico Basso, at the wheel of the Fiat Punto of Trico Motor Sport. Dallavilla, running with the Fiat Punto of Genoa's HF Grifone, complains about too much spinning on the front wheels, while Nicola Caldani, at the debut with the TRT Sport Promotion's Fiat Punto in this season after the Junior experience of the past season, uses too soft tyres which make him lose precious positions.

The second stage is canceled by a damage of the an organization car, which block the stage, while the following stage sees again Paolo Andreucci with the best time, while Andrea Dallavilla has serious troubles at the gearbox, which will be substituted at the next park assistance, although he has to pay 20 seconds penalization for being late at the the time check at the exit of the park.

The fourth stage is won by Giandomenico Basso, who maximizes his own experience with the Fiat Punto, while the production car drivers sign times not so far from the best Super1600 drivers.

The fifth and the sixth stages are won again by Andreucci, who is not going to leave the leadership. The Italian 2002 champion, Renato Travaglia, complains about lack of traction of his Racing Lions' Peugeot 206 Super1600, and he is pursue closely by Autorel's Renault Clio Super1600 of Luca Bizzarri, while Daniele Ceccoli has a puncture and goes back in the leaderboard. Equal values in the last stages of the first leg, which ends with Paolo Andreucci codriven by Anna Andreussi at the first position, followed by Basso at 24.9", then Travaglia at 50.8", Bizzarri at 53.6".
Aghini is delayed at more than one minute, as much as Luca Rossetti with Vieffecorse's Citroen Saxo, then the group N drivers pool is leaded by Cunico.

On Saturday morning he sun doesn't shine as much as the first leg, because of some fog, but this weather condition doesn't obstacle Andreucci, who signs again the best time in the 10th stage, the first of Saturday leg, while Travaglia is long on a curve and loses some seconds, but not the third position in the scoreboard. Paolo Andreucci, with the Procar's Fiat Punto, doubles himself with the best time in the 11th, although during the transfer to the next stage he stops for an engine check, closing badly the bonnet, which opens and causes some little damage to the windscreen.
Caldani spins on the 11th and floats about the tenth position.

The shortest stage, Noi TV, lists several group N carst? in the topmost positions, with Bruschetta driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo7 scoring the best time, and Andreucci only fifth, but the Tuscan driver seems to adopt a cautious style and administers the gap over the remaining drivers.

The following stages are won again by the Fiat drivers, respectively Andreucci in the 13th and Basso in the 14th stage, while Andrea Aghini complains about the rear dampers and make his car a bit instable. The crucial episode is however along the 14th stage, where the leader suffers a puncture at the left rear wheel, which makes him set a time far by 1'43" from Basso. He loses unluckily the first position and goes back to the fourth just behind Bizzarri. Same failure for Luca Rossetti's Citroen Saxo, which obligates him to lose 2' and the fifth position for the twelfth in the scoreboard.

The final stages see a good performance of Renato Travaglia and Giandomenico Basso who defends the prime position and makes him get the first absolute victory in the Italian championship. Paolo Andreucci is able to overtake the third position in the last stage and gets the podium just in time.

Final classification

POS GR CL Driver - Codriver           Car              CAT Total    Diff
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 1  1  1 10 BASSO G. /DOTTA M.         Fiat Punto Supe A6 2:15'53.2 0'00.0
 2  2  2  1 TRAVAGLIA R. /ZANELLA F.   Peugeot 206 Sup A6 2:16'18.1 0'24.9
 3  3  3  6 ANDREUCCI P. /ANDREUSSI A. Fiat Punto Supe A6 2:16'45.8 0'52.6
 4  1  1  2 GALLI G. /D'AMORE G.       Mitsubishi Evo  N4 2:17'42.0 1'48.8
 5  4  4  9 AGHINI LOMBARDI/ROGGIA L.D Peugeot 206 Sup A6 2:17'46.4 1'53.2
 6  2  2  7 LONGHI P. /FAPPANI D.      Sub.Impreza WRX N4 2:18'25.6 2'32.4
 7  5  5 12 CALDANI N. /D'ESPOSITO D.  Fiat Punto Supe A6 2:18'33.1 2'39.9
 8  6  6  4 DALLAVILLA A. /CANTON T.   Fiat Punto Supe A6 2:18'33.4 2'40.2
 9  7  7 16 ROSSETTI L. /CHIARCOSSI M. Citroen Saxo 16 A6 2:18'50.8 2'57.6
10  8  8  8 SCORCIONI A. /DADDOVERI M. Fiat Punto Supe A6 2:18'53.1 2'59.9
11  9  9 20 RATIGLIA F. /CURTO E.      Renault Clio S. A6 2:18'56.5 3'03.3
12  3  3 24 VITA G. /AGNESE G.         Mitsubishi Evo  N4 2:21'05.4 5'12.2
13 10 10 25 BETTEGA A. /SCATTOLIN S.   Fiat Punto Supe A6 2:21'47.8 5'54.6
14  4  4  3 FIORIO A. /CANTONI E.      Subaru Impreza  N4 2:21'50.2 5'57.0
15  5  5 32 LUCIANI S. /PIAZZINI M.    Mitsubishi Evo  N4 2:22'20.5 6'27.3
16 11 11 27 GAMBA M. /ROCCO T.         Fiat Punto Supe A6 2:22'32.6 6'39.4
17  6  6 21 ACERBIS G. /MOMETTI R.     Subaru Impreza  N4 2:24'38.3 8'45.1
18 12 12 26 CECCHETTINI L. /TACCINI P. Fiat Punto Supe A6 2:24'45.9 8'52.7
19  7  1 59 PELLEGRINI P. /BELLANDI B. Renault Clio Rs N3 2:25'16.1 9'22.9
20  8  2 50 VALLINO C. /ARALDO D.      Renault Clio Rs N3 2:25'47.3 9'54.1
21 13  1 37 MARCUCCI A. /BIGIARINI A.  Renault Clio 16 A7 2:26'39.9 10'46.7
22  9  3 38 CIUFFI P. /CASTIGLIONI D.  Renault Clio Rs N3 2:26'57.3 11'04.1
23 10  7 33 PIERANGIOLI V. /GIANNECCH  Mitsubishi Evo  N4 2:28'21.8 12'28.6
24 11  4 41 FORNASIERO C. /FORINA A.   Rover Mg Zr 160 N3 2:29'18.6 13'25.4
25 12  5 40 BRANCADORI A. /PINELLI F.  Mg Rover Zr 160 N3 2:29'33.5 13'40.3
26 13  6 39 TOGNOZZI G. /RICCI F.      Rover Mg Zr 160 N3 2:29'34.8 13'41.6
27 14  7 43 MAZZOLENI E. /CICOGNINI M. Rover Mg Zr 160 N3 2:30'21.7 14'28.5
28 15  1 81 BIANUCCI C. /MILLI M.      Peug.106 Rallye N2 2:30'50.6 14'57.4
29 16  8 46 PIERETTI T. /LOMBARDI L.   Renault Clio Rs N3 2:31'10.5 15'17.3
30 17  8 22 BRUSCHETTA A. /CIVIERO E.  Mitsubishi Evo  N4 2:31'35.9 15'42.7
31 14 13 70 MATTEUCCI C. /INNOCENTI I. Peugeot 106 S16 A6 2:31'48.2 15'55.0
32 15 14 28 PESTICCIO L. /STURLA T.    Fiat Punto Supe A6 2:32'34.9 16'41.7
33 18  9 58 ZELKO F. /CERDINI G.       Renault Clio W. N3 2:33'15.9 17'22.7