Rally de Asturias Histórico – FIA Historic Rally Championship – Round Three
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The lush green landscape of Asturias in northern Spain was the setting for the third round of the FIA European and Spanish Historic Rally Championships. The 41 crews, (24 of them entered in the FIA Championship) faced 130kms of tarmac special stages over two days in the Rally de Asturias Histórico on May 11-13.
Whilst the fast, bumpy roads were a test in their own right, it was the unpredictable weather that would pose some of the biggest challenges to competitors as the event began. But not even the changeable weather could stop the hard charging Italian Andrea ‘Zippo’ Zivian in his Audi Quattro, co-driven by fellow Italian Denis Piceno. After a total engine failure on the previous round in Czech Republic, the team worked to build a new 5-cylinder engine from scratch, including sourcing a new block, head and all internal components. With no time for testing, the crew would only find out what the new engine was capable of when they drove out to the first stage.
eable weather and tyre choice were detemining factors in Zippo’s victory
Photo Courtesy Rally de Asturias
And capable it was. Zivian immediately settled in strongly, taking fastest time on the first stage and was never headed. The pair went on to win all but one of the event’s ten stages, taking overall, EHRC and Category 3 victory in the process.
Chasing them home were fellow Italians ‘Lucky’ and legendary co-driver Fabrizia Pons in their Key Sport Engineering Lancia Delta Integrale 16V. The vastly experienced crew used all their knowledge to overcome challenging weather conditions to seal a comfortable Category 4 win, taking 2nd overall in the event.
In Category 2, Paolo Pasutti and Giovanni Campeis put in a great performance to take third overall amongst the EHRC contenders and Category honours in their Porsche 911, finishing over a minute ahead of regulars Valter Christian Jensen and Erik Pedersen’s Ford Escort RS1800.
For the full report, see our July 2023 issue…
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