28/05/2012 – Several teams will be present and foreign lineups too, that will have to compete against the best drivers of the national championship, expert on the asphalt of the Madonie, starting from the solid Paolo Andreucci,six times winner at the Targa Rally and on top of the CIR 2012 after the victories of Ciocco and recently at Rally of Adriatico.

The foreign contenders, never so numerous in the history of the Sicilian rally, will be led by the young Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen, winner on Skoda Fabia S2000 of the Rally of Conca d'Oro last October before being crowned IRC Champion; he is currently leading the series after the first four races on as many islands: Azzorres, Canary islands, Ireland and Corsica, that saw four different winners and a predominance of Skoda Fabia with Mikkelsen, the Czech Kopecky and the Finnish Hanninen, but also the Spanish Sordo on Mini Cooper in Corsica. Competing in Sicily will also be Wiegand and the Emirates driver Al-Ketbi on two Skoda Fabia, and the Subaru R4 of the Italian Tempestini.

On the Italian side, the Peugeot 207 S2000 of Paolo Andreucci and Anna Andreussi, will most likely have the main rivals in the Skoda of Umberto Scandola, second in CIR, and the Ford Fiesta S2000 driven by Giandomenico Basso,first in Brescia's Rally 1000 Miglia. Other certain protagonists will be Perico and Gamba on the 207 S2000, the works Citroen DS3 of Campedelli, the driver from Messina Andrea Nucita (Citroen C2), the local hero Totò Riolo and Marco Runfola, third last year. This year historic cars will add to the modern cars and will be competing in the Historic rally, valid for the Italian championship but run on a slightly different track.

The layout of the 96th Targa Florio, organized by the Automobile Club of Palermo and A.S.M., together with the Assessorato al Turismo of the Regione Siciliana will offer a lot of novelties with the most awaited comeback of the rally to the streets of Madonie that have been housing the most spectacular and long stages for several years. The rally, will be inserted in the "Millegiri" , a project that together with Targa will also offer the aircrafts of the Giro Aereo of Sicily and the Palermo Motorshow, starting on Thursday 14 June at 20.00 (GMT+2) from the Piazza Politeama and will end after the three racing days on Saturday 16 at 17,00 in Termini Imerese. During the two legs, eleven stages will be run, seven in the first (Targa and Collesano) to be repeated three times after the spectacle stage of the evening at the Boccadifalco airportda, right after the start and four (Cefalù and Castebuono to be repeated) in leg two.

The 96th Targa Florio, will unfold in a total of 170 timed stages involving nearly 700 kilometers run. The assistance park remained the same as last year, the “Targa Florio Village” as the location of the shakedown scheduled for Thursday 14 on a fraction of the provincial road 26 near Trabia.
As regarding the Historic Rally Targa Florio, the programme and layout will be slightly different from those of the modern cars: it will be run on 11 stages, including the "Floriopoli", from grand stands to the town of Cerda.

Detailed information, program of the race and entry forms can be found at http://www.targa-florio.it/web/.