FONTE: UFFICIO STAMPA RALLY MOTUL COSTA BRAVA – These two legendary vehicles will be the stars of a special event in Girona on the eve of the rally, on Thursday 14th March.
• For the second consecutive year, the Rally Motul Costa Brava reaches full capacity, with 240 teams, becoming the highest-level historic rally on the international scene.
• The rally will be held in Girona from 14th to 16th March and will be the first event of the FIA European Historic Rally Championship and the Spanish Championships.
We are less than a month away from the 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava, and the event organized by RallyClassics in Girona, from 14th to 16th March, arrives packed with incentives. Scoring for the FIA European Historic Rally Championship and the Spanish championship, the seventy-second edition of the oldest rally in Spain will pay tribute once again to its rich sporting legacy. This year with a double celebration oftwo legendary vehicles, the Audi Quattro and the Lancia Stratos. The dozen cars expected to compete in the rally will be the stars of a special event on the eve of the first stage, on Thursday 14th on the Girona podium.
Nowadays it is an unprecedented fact to find so many units of these two vehicles in the same rally. As if that were not enough, the 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava has for the second consecutive year reached the full capacity of 240 entries, with a list of candidates that exceeded 300 teams. Due to quantity and quality, the Rally Motul Costa Brava is currently the highest-level historic rally on the international scene.
A tribute to the Audi Quattro and the Lancia Stratos
The main stars will be Michele Cinotto and Emilio Radaelli, winners of the 1984 Rally Costa Brava with an Audi Quattro A2. They will participate in the Legend category with a replica of that same car from forty years ago. This year also marks fifty years since the first manufacturer’s world championship of the Lancia Stratos, achieved in 1974, an anniversary that will also be celebrated in Girona.
Cinotto’s participation in the 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava will be very special for the Italian driver, even more so because he will share the cockpit of the Quattro with the same co-driver from then, Radaelli. Together, they will drive again on legendary stages such as Els Àngels, Santa Pellaia, Cladells, Collsaplana and Osor. The victory at the 1984 Costa Brava was Cinotto’s most relevant victory that season, his last year as a professional driver in the eighties.
The Cinotto/Radaelli Audi Quattro will be well accompanied in Girona. There will be about a dozen Quattro, among those a unit of the “short” Sport Quattro evolution from 1984, and several of the last evolution of the Group B icon, the Quattro S1 E2 from 1985-86 with their spectacular aerodynamics. In addition, the Audi Quattro is the current champion of the Rally Motul Costa Brava, since “Zippo”/Arena won the 2023 edition. This year they return to Girona to try to revalidate the victory.
If the Audi Quattro started the four-wheel drive and turbo revolution in the eighties, the Lancia Stratos was the king of rallying in the seventies. The World Rally Championship (WRC) was established in 1973, initially only for manufacturers, and Lancia won three titles in a row with the Stratos. The first in 1974, fifty years ago. The Stratos is a regular vehicle in the Rally Motul Costa Brava, and RallyClassics also wanted to pay tribute to it. In Girona there will be four, an extraordinary fact in historic rallies nowadays, including the fast British driver Seb Pérez and the Italian Tony Fassina, winner of the 1982 Costa Brava and also the European Championship.
A great show from start to finish
The 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava offers many more points of interest. Among the large number of illustrious competitorsin the Girona event, we find Maurizio Verini, winner of the Costa Brava in 1975 and European champion that same year, who will drive a Fiat X1/9. Also “Lucky”, double winner of the Costa Brava in this last era for historic vehicles, always accompanied by Fabrizia Pons with a Lancia Delta HF Integrale 16v. Pons is a co-driver who won WRC rallies with Michèle Mouton in the eighties, and an undisputed reference for the #MotorDona program started by RallyClassics to promote female participation in the world of classic motorsport.
We must also highlight Simon Jean-Joseph, two-time European champion (Subaru Impreza); the two-time German rally champion in 2014 and 2015 Ruben Zeltner (Porsche 911 GT3); the spectacular Xesús Ferreiro, double winner of the Costa Brava in 2014 and 2021 (Ford Escort RS1800); Donagh Kelly, 2015 Irish rally champion (BMW M3); Cele Foncueva, Group N Spanish champion in 1990 (BMW M3); Valter Jensen, winner of the Costa Brava in 2011 and four-time European champion in his category (Ford Escort RS1800); the multiple champion Jordi Ventura (Ford Sierra RS Cosworth), and many more. We will also have to closely follow the Regularity and Regularity Sport categories, where the best national and international specialists will take part.
The SEAT Históricos team will also join the rally with six cars to celebrate forty years of the popular Seat Ibiza. The team will participate with the two Ibiza Kit Car from the brand’s collection, original cars that won the 2-Litre World Championship three years in a row, between 1996 and 1998.
For all these reasons, the 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava will be an unforgettable edition, perhaps the best in its modern history and the most attractive spectacle that fans of historic vehicles can enjoy today. The competition will consist of two legs, on Friday 15th March and Saturday 16th March, with the tribute to the Audi Quattro and the Lancia Stratos scheduled for Thursday 14th March.
Information of the 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava available at the RallyClassics website
Press contact: comunicacion@rallyclassics.org