The 2024 Coppa Valtellina Rally started under the banner of Luca Rossetti and Debora Fancoli, the Bluthunder crew who monopolized the first part of the race on the Skoda Fabia number 1 prepared by the Lion Team and equipped with Michelin tyres. Four victories in the first four special tests obtained by the multi-titled “Rox”, here at the first with the Fancoli, and a scratch on the Carona at night for the local Manuel Bracchi and the returning Silvia Rocchi on the Skoda by Miele Racing (Pirelli). This is the roadmap for the first day which saw an excellent response from the public both in the mountain trials and on the evocative Ps Valmalenco Show Iperauto held on the city course of Chiesa in Valmalenco.
Rossetti therefore ends the first day as leader and reaches towards the fifth crown after the four successes achieved on these roads between 2009 and 2018; Behind him is Manuel Bracchi, in his second race of the season with the Skoda turbo, 13.9 seconds behind. Third place for the 2022 winner Simone Miele who, paired with Luca Beltrame, uses the same Skoda Fabia Rs of Dream One Racing (Pirelli) that sees him engaged in the TIR; the gap from the leader is 17″4 but the driver from Varese – now Piatedasco – has to watch the mirrors because the Citroen C3 Rally2 of Davide Medici from Reggio is looming together with the local Daniele De Luis, 19″9 behind. Nicholas Cianfanelli and Jacopo Innocenti did well, fifth at 22″4 on Balbosca’s Skoda Evo.
Among those who retired, the Sassi-Manghera crew on Clio S1600 is worth mentioning: the two Lecco drivers from number 26 went off the road on the Ps5 Carona, but, even without physical consequences for the crew, they forced the organizers to interrupt the test and send the remaining competitors took the alternative route because the car was blocking the road and there was no way to free it.
While waiting for the set times of the Ps5, the tussle between the 2-wheel drive sees Giacomo Gini from Valtellina as the leader with Federica Mauri from Erba, first on the Peugeot 106 Kit by SMD and 12th overall. The returning Moreno Cambiaghi, a driver from Traona engaged with Giulia Paganoni on the Peugeot turbo, also did very well: 14th and first in Rally4. Worth noting is Rolando “Rolly” Fay’s excellent race so far, seventeenth overall in the Clio Williams gr.A exactly seventeen years after his last appearance in the race.
