Under a shower of emotions comes the second victory in the Italian Rally Asphalt Championship for Corrado Fontana, this time navigated by Giovanni Agnese in a Hyundai i20 WRC at the Rallye San Martino di Castrozza and Primiero.
The forty-second edition of the event organized by San Martino Corse was characterized, as often happens, by the constant unknown of the weather that conditioned the performance of the dark background specialists, called to the fifth round of the Italian flag, flanked by the best local crews running for the penultimate act of the ACI Sport 3rd Zone Rally Cup.
This time intuition and steadfast nerves made the difference more than speed, which in any case was not lacking in Fontana, who was able to win three of the seven special stages disputed, for a total of 74 timed kilometers.
The advantage dug him for the most part in the first chrono of the second day, with the sun and equal conditions for everyone, thanks to two consecutive scratches on the short but insidious “Sagron Mis” and “Gobbera” which allowed him to gain the top of the ranking, then frozen on the second lap until returning for the celebrations in San Martino.
This victory is paired with the one taken from the Rally della Marca and thus relaunches the Larian towards an increasingly interesting championship finale, which still offers five drivers in the running for the title to be allocated only after the Rally Due Valli and the Rally ACI Como, the last one with coefficient 1,5.
The unpredictability of the San Martino, on the other hand, has reduced the ambitions of the other leading CIRA players right from the start in the Friday night test.
Among these, Simone Campedelli suffered only at the start, navigated by Gianfrancesco Rappa on Skoda Fabia Rally2, immediately slowed down by an unsuitable choice of tires in PS1 due to the sudden arrival of rain.
The player from Cesena then left convinced on Saturday, when he set the best time twice on the longest “Col Falcon” but with gaps only useful to get closer to Corrado Fontana, up to 13.2 ” of margin, to take away the second step of the podium.
A result in terms of points that keeps Campedelli third in the championship, but with the advantage of one more race to be played than his rivals, net of the six appearances required by the regulation on the seven rounds on the calendar. Giuseppe Testa was also on the absolute podium of the San Martino, navigated by Emanuele Inglesi in the Skoda with a gap of 26 “from the top. A placement that is worth the victory of the race for the Area Rally Cup.
A constant rise to the top positions that built by the Molise, who only in the final stages conquered the third place overall against Marco Signor and Patrick Bernardi, also on Skoda, slowed down for the whole day even by trouble at the gearbox and came out defeated from the “lottery” of the choice of tires, which came out with wet tires in the last lap on mainly dry surfaces.
The Treviso still remains in the lead of the absolute, with a result to “discard” of the five already collected and only one race in which he can add another score.
In the end Francesco Aragno and Andrea Segir finished fifth, also on Skoda Fabia, who complete the virtual podium of the CRZ together with Signor-Bernardi. He would have signed up on the eve to close just behind the top of CIRA, yet the Savonese has something to regret after winning his first two special stages in the championship.
Immediately after the opening test “Gobbera” at night, then the repetition of the “Sagron Mis” at the beginning of the last lap, two special tests in which Aragno, in his first year on four-wheel drive, skilful and lucky in the choice of right tires in moments of uncertainty but also concrete and fast as ever at the wheel of his Rally2.
Behind him the expert Emanuele Zecchin, present together with Nicola Vettoretti on Skoda with the focus above all on the fight for the Zone, followed in seventh position by Efrem Bianco, also on the Fabia and with ambitions for the CRZ paired with Dino Lamonato.
Compromised right from the start the rally for Ivan Ferrarotti and Massimo Bizzocchi, among the asphalt specialists who suffered the most from the wet start on Friday with the dry tires mounted on their Skoda, then returned to altitude in the final through a performance without forcing.
Federico Bottoni, with Sofia Peruzzi and Roberto Righetti, sailed by Diego Rossi, both on Skoda Fabia, also enter the top ten of the absolute.
In the presence of the Pale Dolomite, the interesting challenge in the Rally4 class was also staged, where the winner was Nicolò Brunello and Andrea Dal Maso on a Peugeot 208, nineteenth overall in front of the twin of Andrea Stizzoli and Valentina Pozzan.
In third place in Rally4 is the Varese driver Riccardo Pederzani from CIRA, this time navigated by Edoardo Brovelli on a Renault Clio, who claims to be the best Under 25 of the race and stretches in the lead in this special ACI Sport Cup ranking dedicated to the best young player in the race. inside the tricolor.
ABSOLUTE CLASSIFICATION RALLYE SAN MARTINO DI CASTROZZA
1. Fontana-Agnese (Hyundai New I20 Wrc) in 49’25.2; 2. Campedelli-Rappa (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo) at 13.2; 3. Head-English (Skoda Fabia R5 Evo 2) at 26.0; 4. Mr-Bernardi (Skoda Fabia R5) at 37.1; 5. Aragno-Segir (Skoda Fabia R5) at 1’03.6; 6. Zecchin-Vettoretti (Skoda Fabia R5 Evo) at 1’19.1; 7. Bianco-Lamonato (Skoda Fabia R5) at 1’29.4; 8. Ferrarotti-Bizzocchi (Skoda Fabia R5 Evo) at 1’38.6; 9. Buttons-Peruzzi (Skoda Fabia R5) at 2’04.2; 10. Righetti-Rossi (Skoda Fabia R5 Evo) at 2’32.9
ABSOLUTE CLASSIFICATION CIR ASPHALT
1. Mr 58pt (in 5 results); 2. Fontana 51.5pt (in 5 results); 3. Campedelli 49.5pt (in 4 results); 4. Pinzano 38pt (in 4 results); 5. Test 36pt (in 4 results)
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