For the sixth time, the Fiorio family will host the annual Fiorio Cup this weekend – but this one means more than before.
Officially renamed the Fiorio Cup – Alex Fiorio Trophy, this year’s family-feel event will pay homage to the late Alex Fiorio who passed away in August.
Alex was a driving force behind the event, which pitches drivers from Italy and the rest of Europe against each other for a contest within the grounds of the Fiorio family farm.
Previous individual winners include double World Rally champion Kalle Rovanperä, Andrea Crugnola and Andrea Mabellini – but this year a new victor is guaranteed with none of these men on the start list.
Team Italy is captained by Andrea Aghini, with Italian champion and WRC2 event winner Roberto Daprà, 18-year-old Giovanni Trentin, Matteo Bernini and Tamara Molinaro doing the driving.
Henning Solberg captains the opposition, Team Europe, with his stepson Pontus Tidemand, Elliott Delecour and off-road regular Hedda Hosas forming the rest of the team.
ll competitors will drive identical Škoda Fabia RS Rally2s supplied by PA Racing, competing for the inaugural Trofeo Alex Fiorio.
Mariapaola Fiorio, Alex’s eldest daughter, was determined to keep her father’s legacy alive with this year’s event.
“Dad had expressed his wish for the Fiorio Cup to continue,” she said.
“We are doing a great job as a team, thanks to the expertise of those who have stood alongside me, and this has made it possible to begin a new chapter for the Fiorio Cup and carry forward the spirit in which he imagined it: a competition born out of passion, which became a community and is now ready to continue in his name.
“Now it’s up to the young and promising Italian drivers to respond to the experience and skill of Team Europe’s competitors. It’s going to be great fun!”
