Alghero harbor will be considerably quieter on Sunday afternoon. With no World Rally Championship in town, the will be no winner of Rally Italia Sardegna and therefore no driver diving into the harbor to celebrate success following the finish.
Italy’s WRC round is, of course, postponed and not canceled – with the hope of running in the autumn.
It’ll be interesting to see whether or not the winning driver will be just as prepared to hurl himself at the fish on a chilly, overcast Sunday afternoon in late October or November. If Sardinia really does chilly, overcast Sunday afternoons.
I digress.
Summer’s here. Sardinia’s the first European round which is pretty much guaranteed to be absolutely baking. And a real test of man and machine.
And, frustratingly, for the first time in ages this year’s event was scheduled to run a week earlier – which meant making it home and across to another motorsport-mad island, the Isle of Man, for some Senior Race action.
Welcome to #DirtFishItalyweek. You’ll notice it’s Italy week and not Sardinia week. We’re not containing the fever focus to some of the season’s rockiest roads inland from Olbia and Alghero. We’re winding the clock back pre-2004, when Italy’s WRC was based in the beautiful Iberian riviera town of Sanremo.
You know the form now, it’ll be a bit of everything from every era of Italy’s history in the world championship. But it’s not just me getting excited about Italy this week. We’ve brought in reinforcements in the shape of Hyundai Motorsport director Andrea Adamo.
The WRC’s most famous Italian (right now, that is. Special, special man that Mr A is, he’s not quite on the same level as the one called Miki or Sandro…) will be detailing his three favorite events in Italian rallying history.
On top of that, there will be the usual audio intrigue via SPIN, The Rally Pod with Lisa O’Sullivan, Colin Clark and George Donaldson and some visual beauty supplied, as always, by McKlein.
On top of all that, there’s a quite extraordinary story about a Fiat and a farmhouse.
Stay tuned and enjoy #DirtFishItalyweek.
