Wednesday, May 7th, 2019 – The rally organized by Automobile Club Palermo in collaboration with Automobile Club d’Italia reached its 103rd edition and will see all the best drivers of the Italian Rally Championship at the start, like those of the Italian Historic Rally Championship, 8th Zone Rally Championship and Italian Regularity Championship. Waiting will be over on Friday when the start to the rally will be given in Palermo. The spectacle super stage will take place in Termini Imerese on the 2,5 km test at 17.13, and will be followed by two passes on the “Cefalù” stage of 14,70 km.
The oldest race in the world will feature the most legendary venues of the Targa Florio in this edition. The liason will include parts of the short, medium and long Madonie’s circuit and, following the resurfacing of the roads, these stages will inflame again fans with some historic stages like the one starting from Cerda’s Tribune.
All eyes will be on Giandomenico Basso and on the Skoda Fabia R5 run by Loran and DP Autosport. The Italian driver won the Ciocco rally and came third in Sanremo and his co-equiper Lorenzo Granai and he will have the difficult goal of defending their classification lead. Despite the absence of the winner of the previous round of the Italian Rally Championship Craig Breen, rivals will be strong in Sicily and will try and challenge the classification leader.
Among these, Simone Campedelli and Luca Rossetti will play their cards respectively on the Ford Fiesta R5 and on the Citroen DS3 R5. The first will compete alongside co-equiper Tania Canton for Orange 1 Racing. The pairing will be resolute to build on the second place obtained in Sanremo and will try to bounce back from the DNF scored in 2018, trying to score some further points valid for the Constructors title that is already led by Ford Italia and to relaunch their position in a series that had them as favourites at the eve. Rossetti will get to Palermo with two wins under his belt (in 2008 and 2009), but this time he will have Eleonora Mori at the notes on the works Citroen DS3 R5. They will be hunting for a win that could show that the team has undertaken the right path after a lot of work and results below expectations so far.
Andrea Crugnola is a different story instead. The Italian driver has always been very fast on the Volkswagen Polo R5 and has the potential to fight for the rally victory and for that of the championship. With a little bit of luck on his side, he could be the revelation of the championship, therefore the Targa could be the race turning around his campaign. Other drivers are called to a strong race, like Rudy Michelini on Skoda Fabia R5 run by Movisport. The Italian is leading the CIRA after two rounds but will have to watch out for the attacks moved by Stefano Albertini, who has a lot of potential on the other Fabia R5 run by Mirabella Mille Miglia. Antonio Rusce will be on another Polo R5 and will have Marco Vozzo at the notes in this occasion, the co-equiper won edition 2018 on the right of Andrea Nucita, who will be on the 0-car for the whole season. Kevin Gilardoni is also ready for the challenge on the Hyundai I20 R5, as Marcello Razzini and home-hero Alessio Profeta, both on Skoda Fabia R5.
The race in Sicily will also be valid for the 2WD Italian Rally Championship, Italian Rally Junior and R1 Italian Championship. In the 2WD the challenge will involve classification leader Tommaso Ciuffi and Luca Panzani on Ford Fiesta, while Christopher Lucchesi will try to recover the six points gap from the leader on Renault Clio R3. In the Women Trophy, Rachele Somaschini on Citroen DS3 R3T and Patrizia Perosino on Peugeot 208 R2 will also be present.
The R1 lot in Sicily will be led by Daniele Campanaro on Suzuki Swift R1B. The Japanese cars will fight also for the Suzuki Rally Cup and Fabio Poggio is leading the charts from Corrado Peloso to Andrea Scalzotto after two rounds.
Edition 103 of the Targa Florio will kick off from Massimo square in Palermo on Friday, May 10th, while the final chequered flag will be on Saturday, May 11th, at 20:51 on the Belvedere of Termini Imerese. The final classification will be drawn after 17 tests amounting to 151,35 competitive kms on a total liason of 558,56 Km.
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In the pictures: The start from Palermo in 2018 and the warm fans of Targa Florio
