The World Rally Championship Returns To Gallura 0 Comments

The Rally Italia Sardegna’s 2021 edition, an event organized by the Automobile Club of Italy in partnership with the Sardinia Region scheduled from the 3rd to the 6th of this upcoming June, will have as its sole Italian stopover, in the centre of Olbia.

The service park will be located in Olbia at Molo Brin just a stone's throw from the centre, while the press room will be housed in the archaeological museum. The race program foresees on Thursday 3 the shakedown in Loiri (2.76 km) south of Olbia, that is the test session the day before the race, for checks and reliability tests, for the setup of the cars and recognition of the route, then the ceremonial departure will take place in the same evening in Alghero. 

It will be scheduled a total of 305 timed kilometres, divided into 20 special stages all on dirt roads and all in the northern part of the island. The race, which is the fifth round of the world rally championship, will be valid for the WRC 2 and WRC 3 world championship in addition to the national validity for the Italian Rally Terrain Championship.

Whether the event will be held behind open or closed doors, will depend on the evolution of the pandemic’s factors on which basis the Health Authorities will be able to make a decision next May. 

Thanks to the legendary Costa Smeralda Rally, founded in 1978 by Karim Aga Khan, with Don Franco di Suni, the then president of the Italian Automobil Club of Sassari, the roar of racing cars on dusty dirt roads is a familiar sound in Gallura, becoming a genuine tradition.

The Rally Italia Sardegna stops will be:

• The first stop on Friday the 4th of June includes 128.16 timed kilometres with four races twice repeated and will take place in Monte Acuto, land of Giolzia the Warrior Princess (Filigosu and Terranova) and in upper Gallura (Tempio and Tula).

• Saturday 5th there will be another 132.28 timed kilometres, with 4 specials, again twice repeated, set in Monte Acuto (Coiluna and Monte Lerno) and then in Anglona, very close to Castelsardo and Gallura (with a new time trial in Bortigiadas).

• Finally, on Sunday 6th the final stop of 44.88 timed kilometres where there will be two new special twice repeated stops on the north coast of Gallura. Braniatogghiu (15 km), returning after ten years, and the new power stop of Rena Majore (7.44 km) will host the enchanting scenery where the race will end.

The winner of the championship is the one who scores more points in a season, this applies to both the constructors and the drivers and co-drivers. For the constructors the points are awarded in the same way as the drivers but are assigned only to the first 2 cars of each team, provided that they are officially registered in the championship itself.

"Better having 350 horsepower and not using them than having one less than necessary and then suffering for missing it" - Sandro Munari.

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Written by Daniela Toti

Photo from Motorsport MotoriOnLine