Tour Britannia

Event organisers have confirmed that Group Lotus will welcome Tour Britannia 2008 to its test track at its Hethel Headquarters for a double special stage on the first day of the Tour. The Hethel track has been used over the years for all kinds of activities from shaking down Formula One cars and testing prototypes to pre-delivery runs for cars from the Lotus production lines. It is also used for Lotus Motor Club sprints and, more regularly now, for the Hethel Driver Training & Experience days, run by Lotus Sport where Lotus owners are instructed in safe driving and the techniques involved in high speed motoring. Now it will stir to the varied sounds of the cars entered on Tour Britannia on Tuesday, September 2nd.

Lotus CEO Mike Kimberley admitted, "It is going to be a bit different to the daily activities at Hethel, but the facility is ideally suited to an event like this. I am sure that all the crews coming here will enjoy the stage that will be laid on for them and find it one of the more challenging and interesting venues that they will visit.

Tour Britannia runs from 2-4 September. Entries are still open, but filling up fast. Contact organisers on Tel/Fax: +44 (0) 1252 781 431 or entries(at)tourbritannia.com.

Mitiche Sport

This congenial touring rally will this year extend to three days, instead of its usual two, and visit the Dolomites at a beautiful time of year. Often known as the “barchetta rally”, because of the number of rare Italian open sports cars that regularly compete (one of the rules is that competitors must not open the doors of their cars during the rally!), it attracts OSCAs, Siatas, Erminis, Devins, Morettis, Gordinis and other rarely seen 1950’s barchettas.

The Mitiche Sport a Bassano will this year this year start from Romano d’Ezzelino on Friday afternoon 20 June and visit some of the stunning passes and picturesque villages of the area. After night stops in Caprile, and San Martino di Castrozza, the grand finish will be in Bassano del Grappa, home of the organising Assi Club, where a lunch and prizegiving in the Castle of Marostica will round off the event. Eligible cars are from 1920 to 1960 with FIVA or ASI or FIA passports.

This rally attracts participants from many countries, and has the reputation of visiting the best places, not only in terms of scenery, but also of local charm and interest and, the organisers like to stress, the best local cuisine. See the web site for more details at www.assiclub.com or Email to: info(at)assiclub.com.

FIA Rally Championship

With the Abu Dhabi rally postponed, there are still 14 confirmed dates for the 2008 FIA European Historic Sporting Rally Championship (see our calendar section this issue). Cars built up to 1981 are eligible, but there are three period categories: up to end of 1969; up to end of 1975 and up to end of 1981, further split into classes according to cubic capacity, giving three Champions at the end of the season. In Category One, any road legal car built from 1931 up to the end of 1957 is allowed; after 1957 only homologated GT, Touring and GTS cars are eligible. For safety reasons, mid- and rear-engined two-seater racing cars are not admitted to the Championship.

New last year is a requirement to register for the Championship at least seven days before your first event. To do this contact the FIA on Tel: +41 22 544 44 00 or Email: With the Abu Dhabi rally postponed, there are still 14 confirmed dates for the 2008 FIA European Historic Sporting Rally Championship (see our calendar section this issue). Cars built up to 1981 are eligible, but there are three period categories: up to end of 1969; up to end of 1975 and up to end of 1981, further split into classes according to cubic capacity, giving three Champions at the end of the season. In Category One, any road legal car built from 1931 up to the end of 1957 is allowed; after 1957 only homologated GT, Touring and GTS cars are eligible. For safety reasons, mid- and rear-engined two-seater racing cars are not admitted to the Championship.

New last year is a requirement to register for the Championship at least seven days before your first event. To do this contact the FIA on Tel: +41 22 544 44 00 or Email: historicentry(at)fia.com.

San Remo Rally Storico

The FIA Championship starts in San Remo on 3-6 April, where the rally runs a total distance of 316 kilometres, of which some 150kms is special stage, making it a short, sharp and very competitive rally with a maximum coefficient towards the Championship. To encourage earlier cars, a 20% discount is offered to cars of Category One.

Also on the FIA calendar, the Coppa dei Fiori runs after the sporting rally on the same course, with regularity tests on the special stages, counting towards the FIA Regularity Championship.

Contact organisers in San Remo on: +39 0184 577 000 or Email: info(at)sanremorally.it. The website is www.sanremorally.it.

Rallye del Corallo

The fifth round of the 2008 FIA European Historic Rally Championship will take place in Sardinia on 6-8 June. New this year to the Rallye del Corallo, after a first day of Tarmac stages including three night stages, the second day will feature 60kms of gravel stages. There is also a stage on the local circuit. Total driving distance is 522kms on the two-day event in the area of the Corallo coast in western Sardinia, starting in the seaside town of Alghero. The rally also counts towards the Italian Rally Championship and the Sardinian Championship.

Running ten minutes behind the competitive rally cars will be the Coppa del Corallo, a slightly shorter regularity event valid for the Mediterranean Trophy and the ‘All Stars’ event, a 360km run, with timing but without classifications. Contact info(at)rallydelcorallo.com for further information.

FIA Seminar – Rally Discussion

The FIA Rally Championships have a great calendar for 2008, with 14 Competition events and eight rounds of the Regularity Championship with a good spread of locations throughout Europe. Many of these rallies have popular local followings and run with full grids, though most are not registered for the Championship.

The rally group at the recent FIA Seminar in Athens have started a project to better publicise the FIA Championships, both for competition and regularity rallies. A brochure is being prepared, which gives basic details of each rally in the Championship and contact details of the organisers. These will go to competitors, who often don’t even know which events count towards the Championship and how to enter them.

They have also nominated a Competitor Relations person for Championship participants. A competitor himself (he came third in last year’s Championship navigating for Marco Bianchini in a Lancia Stratos) Emanuelle Baldaccinni will be at most events to answer queries and liaise between competitors and organisers.

Read more rally news in our April issue