After winning the Italian Championship with Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta, the Grande Punto Abarth has also won the Spanish title, with local driver Miguel Fuster, and the Madeira championship in Portugal, with Vitor Sà. Abarth’s successful weekend was completed by the success of Renato Travaglia and Simone Scattolin at the Rally of Antibes, the last event in the European Championship. This result gave the Italian driver maximum points, putting him in a position of possibly winning the title, which is currently on hold, due to an appeal by the Italian driver at the Elpa Rally in Greece.
We should point out that Travaglia began the European Championship in a Mitsubishi Lancer, changing to a Grande Punto Abarth for the Barum Rally (Czech Republic), and he remained in the same car for the final event in the European Championship, the Antibes Rally, which is run on a very difficult route with a number of special speed trials borrowed from the Monte Carlo Rally.
Travaglia dominated in his Grande Punto Abarth, leading from start to finish and winning nearly all the speed trials, ahead of French driver Jean-Joseph in a Citroen C2. The Grande Punto Abarth almost monopolised the first positions, with 4 cars in the first 5 places overall. Third place went to Turkish driver Isik, ahead of Solowow of Poland and Mermet of France.
There was great excitement in Spain for the success of Fuster and Abarth in the Costa Brava Rally, which was only decided in the last speed trial of the championship. The title and the race were contested by Fuster and Hevia, in a Volkswagen Polo, separated by less than 2” in the standings. The Volkswagen went off the road in the last timed stretch and the title went to Fuster and Abarth.
In the Madeira Championship (Portugal), Vitor Sà took his team’s Grande Punto Abarth to first place after dominating throughout the season in the Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic.
Turin, October 22, 2007
International
