FIA European Rally Championship 2024 Round One Rally Costa Brava

The 72nd Rally Motul Costa Brava reached full capacity with 240 teams entered in the FIA and Spanish Championships, and another seven cars joining them in the Legend category.  Over 50 cars were registered in the FIA Championship, probably the series’ fullest grid yet, while the regularity section, which opened the Spanish season, attracted 70 cars.  The two-day event, on 15-16 March, offered 12 stages and 160kms of timed special stages.  

Defending Category 4 Champion “Lucky” was due to participate with regular co-driver Fabrizia Pons, but his late withdrawal for personal reasons means a delay in the start of his title defence.  Category 3 Italian “Zippo” returned in his Audi Quattro, rebuilt after it was badly damaged on Rallye du Chablais last season.  Ernie Graham, who took the Category 1 title last year, then switched to Category 4, continues in the latter class in a BMW M3.

Changing weather conditions challenged teams on the first day, with rain at both ends of the day, and a few hours of spring-like weather in between.  The route consisted of loops through the most famous stages of Les Gavarres and the Costa Brava, such as Els Àngels, Santa Pellaia and Salions-Sant Grau, all of which brought out large numbers of spectators.

Angelo Lombardo, with Giovanni Battista Campeis co-driving his Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.0, shrugged off his lack of event knowledge to register five fastest stage times and added the Category 2 win to his overall FIA EHRC success.  The pair had lost time on the first stage, choosing to start the stage on dry tyres instead of the wets favoured by the other teams.

Olivier Capanaccia claimed Category 4 honours in second place among the FIA contenders aboard a BMW M3 as Martin McCormack overcame gearbox issues to complete the top three in another M3, just 3.7s behind Capanaccia.  McCormack could have challenged for the outright EHRC victory had it not been for his car getting stuck in third gear on SS2 and again on SS6. “We were lucky we only lost the time we did, and the guys did a great job with the gearbox change in 15 minutes after SS2,” said McCormack, who set four fastest stage times.

James Potter (Ford Escort Twincam) beat Antonio Parisi to the Category 1 victory by 10.9s, while there was cause for Spanish celebration in Category 3 when Jesus Manuel Ferreiro triumphed in a Ford Escort RS 1800 MkII.

This year, the overall title will be contested by all drivers and co-drivers regardless of their category with all rounds counting.  The new FIA European Historic 1600cc Trophy is for cars up to 1600cc from Categories 1-4 with the six best scores counting.  This went to László Mekler (Alfa Romeo 1600 Sprint GTA) who said: “It was 10 years ago when we were here for the first time with this car so I thought now it’s the time to bring it back, it’s an anniversary. We came here to win the 1600cc Trophy so we are happy.”

The rise in the number of front-wheel-drive cars competing has been recognised with the FIA European Historic FWD Trophy with crews also counting their best six scores. The class was won by Carlos Sampayo and Irene Serrano Granda (Renault 11 Turbo) who said they would try to do more rallies and push to win the FWD Trophy.

A number of retirements included a very disappointed “Zippo”, who stopped on SS1 with broken steering in his Audi Quattro before he restarted on leg two.

Overall victory went to the French team of Julien Saunier and Marie Noëlle Ratier (Porsche 911 SC 3.0), who dominated the leaderboard from start to end.  It is a great achievement given that this was the first participation in the Rally Motul Costa Brava for both driver and co-driver.