CIAR | Crugnola dominates and wins the Ciocco and Valle del Serchio Rally

The Italian Absolute Rally Sparco Championship 2024 began under the banner of the reigning champions. Andrea Crugnola and Pietro Elia Ometto literally dominated the Ciocco and Valle del Serchio Rally, the first CIAR event, triumphing at the wheel of the Citroen C3 Rally2 of the FPF Sport team.

The reigning Italian champion crew won 9 of the 11 scheduled races, leading the overall classification from start to finish.

Let's be clear, the opponents of the Vicenza native and Ometto have certainly not rolled out red carpets for the crew to beat, which sets out again this year to confirm itself as champion, but for a series of reasons they have only come closer, without however insinuating the leaders into very little doubt.

Starting off strong yesterday with three scratches in as many tests played, today Crugnola and Ometto completed the job by winning another 5 consecutive stages (from PS4 to PS8), bringing their tally to 8 in a row. At that point only an excellent Andrea Nucita could smile on SS9 and SS11, with Crugnola still the winner in the test that divided the Sicilian's two successes.

Crugnola thus starts as championship leader, exactly as he finished in 2023, and giving the sensation of having all the credentials – team, car and combination with Ometto – to aim for another title.

Behind him, however, we have already seen very interesting things starting from the second place obtained by Giandomenico Basso and Lorenzo Granai on their debut with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 of the Toyota GR Italia team.

The multiple Italian and European champion has not taken away the satisfaction of winning the special stages, but it is clear that he is still looking for the perfect feeling with the Japanese car after racing for several years with a Skoda. The 25″8 gap from Crugnola indicates that the path to be taken to fight and aim for victory in an event is long, but not that tortuous. Indeed, second place must be a good sign for the rest of the season.

Simone Campedelli closes the podium navigated by Tania Canton. The driver from Romagna, at the wheel of the first Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, came close to taking second place by less than three seconds, but was satisfied with a positive third place with a large margin (13″2) compared to the first Hyundai i20 N Rally2, the by Andrea Nucita and Rudy Pollet.

The Top 5 was completed by Marco Signor and Daniele Michi with the second Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, who did well to finish less than a minute behind the winners. Luca Bottarelli and Manuel Fenoli still had the satisfaction of finishing sixth ahead of the 11-time Italian champion and multiple winner of the event Paolo Andreucci, seventh in the Citroen C3 Rally2 shared with Rudy Briani.

Giacomo Scattolon and Gabriele Zanni took eighth place ahead of Damiano De Tommaso – ninth and author of a complex race – and Andrea Mabellini, tenth. Of note is the withdrawal of Antonio Rusce and Sauro Farnocchia due to a mistake that cost them dearly. The two hit the wall, breaking a steering arm and ending up stuck in the middle of the road. The race direction had to display the red flag to remove the car from the road, while the crew did not suffer any physical damage from the impact.