The story is one of the beautiful ones to tell: he was the first winner in the Suzuki Rally Cup in 2008 and 15 years later he decided to return to racing in 2022. It wasn’t enough for him to reappear, but he wanted to dominate the scene with the Swift Sport Hybrid: Matteo Giordano won the one-make brand and gave the Hamamatsu manufacturer the title in the Italian Rally R1 Championship, the second for the Japanese brand, for which he was the most celebrated in the Vicenza prize giving that Suzuki Italia organized as part of the of the Rally Meeting curated by Miki Biasion.
The 41-year-old from Cuneo made a breakthrough with his Swift Sport Hybrid by winning five of the first six races on asphalt: Ciocco, Sanremo, Alba, and 1000 Miglia, all CIAR events, as well as the Rally della Lana race of the Italian Asphalt Rally Championship. Giordano shared the cockpit mostly with his wife, Manuela Siragusa, who won the trophy reserved for co-drivers.
“We set off with a great desire to do well – says Giordano – but with few certainties because we only discovered the car at Ciocco. It’s been a perfect season, we didn’t do anything wrong and the car was always performing. The best win? Perhaps in Sanremo: it was a difficult race, in particular conditions given that there was also hailstorms”.
The return to rallies was possible thanks to the grandparents who took care of the two children when the Giordanos and spouses were involved in the Suzuki Rally Cup: “It was a surprising season, also because we had to face all new rallies, with routes that I had never seen before. Then winning with my wife by my side tastes special, because we are able to share a passion outside of the daily routine”.
On the podium in Vicenza, in addition to the well-deserved cups, the Giordanos took home two checks for a total of 22,500 euros of the rich prize money that Suzuki Italia puts up for grabs every year for its riders. Fifteen were those finished in the points. The real big battle was for second place with a beautiful three-way fight that rewarded Igor Iani, still the most deserving Under 25.
The twenty-two year old from Malesco with his success in the Targa Florio managed to interrupt Giordano’s soliloquy, adding a second victory in the Due Valli Rally which preceded the place of honor in the Marche which mathematically guaranteed him the second position of the cup.
“In the third year we wanted to win – explains Iani – but someone stronger than us like Giordano arrived, with more experience. In the end we also managed to find the third consecutive success in the Under 25, so the result is excellent”.
Iani had to defend himself from the attacks of the Suzuki Rally Cup veterans, starting with Roberto Pellé. It was a more complicated season than expected for the Trentino rider, which started with two second places in the first two outings but slowed down with two empty passes in the warm phase. The victory on the difficult dirt roads of the Macerata area allowed Roberto to end the season on the podium ahead of Giorgio Fichera.
Cristian Mantoet celebrated his victory in the Racing Start category after a great comeback on Stefano Martinelli from Garfagnana, another unmissable driver in the Suzuki ranks, who had to settle for second place in his category.
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