Simply unattainable, Andrea Crugnola and Pietro Elia Ometto on Citroen C3 Rally2 dominated the 40th Rally Due Valli and won the title in the Italian Absolute Rally Sparco 2022 Championship. shot on the initial Power Stage that gave him the Italian flag, then a clear path with 11 races won out of 11 total until the more than deserved celebrations in Piazza Brà.
Great party also for the challenge organized by the Automobile Club Verona, born in 1972 and now in its 50th birthday, which also staged the penultimate act of the Italian Rally Asphalt Championship, in a single race, in addition to the final act for the 3rd Zone Rally Cup and the historic cars of the Zone Rally Trophy for a total of 187 cars. No one was able to do better than Crugnola-Ometto who, despite the second title already acquired after the first two kilometers of rally, never gave up and with enviable confidence they signed the fourth victory in seven championship races.
“We are really satisfied with this wonderful season. Always solid, concrete, we did not do anything wrong – explained Andrea Crugnola with great emotion upon arrival – starting from the FPF Sport team, impeccable, to move on to the Movisport team. It is a collective success. Today we were more relaxed, we kept a fast pace but without forcing. Here with more confidence than in the previous races we managed to do a perfect race ”.
Once again Giandomenico Basso and Lorenzo Granai tried to challenge them on Hyundai i20 Rally2, but they had to settle for second place with a gap of 39.9 ”. Yet it seemed the best performance of the Treviso season, who also showed the harmony already reached with the Korean car on the asphalts of La Scala. The final podium also represented a symbolic handover between Basso, the outgoing champion who had raised the flag to the sky in Verona twelve months ago, and Crugnola, today back as Champion for the second time after his success in 2020.
Basso-Granai thus closed the CIAR Sparco in third place in the standings with an overtaking in this final on Stefano Albertini and Danilo Fappani, who climbed to the third step of the Veronese podium. The Brescians on Skoda Fabia had started with little conviction in the initial part of the race at night, then they got back in rhythm but never close enough to the times of the leaders to try the attack on the top.
Nikolay Gryazin and Konstantin Aleksadrov, also on Skoda, close at the foot of the podium. The World Rally driver arrived in Verona with a precedent of four victories in Italian appearances, but he soon had to deal with a selective path like that of the Due Valli which immediately put him in difficulty. A puncture in the night test had made him slide to the rear, but Gryazin still managed to confirm his talent and recovered to fourth place.
Behind him two young people from ACI Team Italia, both on Skoda Fabia, like Tommaso Ciuffi and Nicolò Gonella who win the race for the Italian Rally Promotion Championship followed by Damiano De Tommaso and Massimo Bizzocchi, the great losers of this appointment. The other rider from Varese had arrived as Crugnola’s only opponent for the title, but the fourth place obtained in the Power Stage also put an end to his last dreams and partly conditioned him mentally, in a rally he faced without ever being at his side. at ease behind the wheel of the Czech Rally2.
The Rally Due Valli was instead full of twists for the race of the Italian Rally Asphalt Championship. The victory went to Corrado Pinzano and Marco Zegna on Volkswagen Polo Rally 2, the second season for them after the home joy in Rally Lana. The man from Biella, now the third force of the Italian flag, managed to make the most of the slowdown of Simone Campedelli, who was highly anticipated as a “seeded” among asphalters, this time navigated by Tania Canton on the Skoda Fabia. It was an opportunity to recover the top of CIRA for Cesena, which after a start with four consecutive scratches ran into a puncture on PS6 “Vestenavecchia” which made him lose 2’50 ”.
The comeback, made up of eight races won in all, served Campedelli only to reach fourth place, which earned him the necessary points to get close to the leader Marco Signor in the general classification. The second position of the Asphalt therefore went to Giuseppe Testa and Emanuele Inglesi on another Skoda, who dueled precisely with Pinzano-Zegna in the final phase of the rally. The Molise, however, suffered the overtaking, was however satisfied with the placement that, in addition to leaving him in the race in view of the last ACI Como Trophy, gave him the victory of the Michelin Rally Cup.
It will be them, in the order of Campedelli, Pinzano and Testa, who will compete for the title of the Asphalt at the end of the month by the lake against the absent Signor and Corrado Fontana. The third place on the CIRA podium went to Andrea Carella and Manuel Fenoli, too anxious in the opening stages to fully cultivate their top ambitions. Behind them the Argentine Paulo Soria and the Spaniard Axel Coronado complete the top ten positions in their first experience on Skoda Fabia.
Together with the major tricolors, the final and decisive challenge for the Italian Junior Rally Championship took place. The victory in the race handed the youth flag into the hands of Alessandro Casella and Rosario Siragusano, the fastest also on this asphalt stage among the talents of ACI Team Italia, all in the Renault Clio Rally4 managed by Motorsport Italia and fitted with Pirelli tires. Vibrant and fought up to the last meter the comparison between the Juniors, with the ranking that proposed the four contenders for the title alternating at the top. Edoardo De Antoni got off to a better start than the others with Martina Musiari, winner of the initial Power Stage but slowed down at night first by a non-championship car resumed in the special stage, then by a puncture on the last test on Friday.
Then Mattia Zanin took the chair together with Fabio Pizzol, author of the best time on the second race and in the lead until the following morning. Then came the reaction of Davide Nicelli Jr. with Tiziano Pieri, who built their provisional leadership with a couple of wins in the special stage to finish at the top of the interval. Then the sharp of Messina Casella, who regained the lead in the penultimate special before confirming himself in first place with the last decisive time trial. In second overall position they closed Zanin-Pizzol at 7.3 ”, thus denying the title to Nicelli-Pieri, at 11.9 ”, who would have graduated Champions even with second place.
The Rally Due Valli was also the penultimate round for the Suzuki Rally Cup, the last on asphalt. The very young Igor Iani from Ossola, already winner of the Under 25 classification, achieved his second victory of the season paired with Nicola Puliani in the Suzuki Swift Sport Hybrid. This time Matteo Giordano, already holder of the trophy, still sailed by Manuela Siragusa always on the hybrid, can be satisfied with the second position, at 28.1 ”. Third place for Roberto Pellé and Giulia Luraschi on another Hybrid at 1’53.8. The first victory for Massimiliano and Marco Milivinti in the Racing Start category, also Under 25s, also arrived in Piazza Brà, thus managing to leave open the possibility of contending for the trophy that will be awarded at the final Rally delle Marche on the dirt road.
ABSOLUTE RANKING 40 ° RALLY TWO VALLEYS: 1. Crugnola-Ometto (Citroen C3 R5) in 1: 18’10.1; 2. Low-Granaries (Hyundai I 20 N) at 39.9; 3. Albertini-Fappani (Skoda Fabia Evo) at 1’19.1; 4. Gryazyn-Aleksandrov (Skoda Fabia R5) at 1’38.3; 5. Ciuffi-Gonella (Skoda Fabia Evo) at 2’06.9; 6. De Tommaso-Bizzocchi (Skoda Fabia R5) at 2’20.4; 7. Pinzano-Zegna (Volkswagen Polo GTI) at 2’35.9; 8. Head-English (Skoda Fabia Evo 2) at 2’41.6; 9. Carella-Fenoli (Skoda Fabia R5) at 3’23.2; 10. Soria Sanchez-Coronado Jimenez (Skoda Fabia Evo) at 4’18.3.
CIAR SPARCO RANKING: 1. Crugnola 145.5pt; 2. De Thomas 105pt; 3. Low 74.5pt; 4. Albertini 74pt; 5. Andolfi 69pt; 6. Tufts 36.5pt; 7. Scattolon 31pt; 8. Michelini 14.5pt; 9. Rusce 12pt; 10. Honey, Sulpice, Prophet 6pt.
CIAR JUNIOR RANKING: 1. Box 101pt; 2. Nicelli 97pt; 3.Zanin 89pt; 4. De Antoni 73pt; 5. Ceriali 40pt; 6. De Nuzzo 32pt; 7. Soliter 27pt; Carra 19pt.
ABSOLUTE CLASSIFICATION CIR ASPHALT: 1. Mr 58pt; 2. Campedelli 57,5pt; 3. Pinzano 53pt; 4. Fountain 51.5pt; 5. 48pt head; 6. Carella 41.5pt; 7. Aragno 17pt.
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