• Girona hosted yesterday an exciting tribute to the legendary Audi Quattro and Lancia Stratos on the eve of the most crowded and popular edition of the historic rally.
• The 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava reaches once again its full capacity with 247 teams and opens the season of the FIA European Historic Rally Championship and the Spanish Historic Rally Championships.
• Outstanding national and international teams will contest a rally made up of 12 stages and 160 km chrono.
• For the third consecutive year, the Rally Motul Costa Brava has the main sponsorship of Motul.

The 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava launched yesterday with a memorable tribute to the Audi Quattro and the Lancia Stratos, as well as to former winners of the Costa Brava on the podium in Girona. The interest is now shifting towards the stages, where throughout two days of competition the teams will face the legendary stages of the oldest rally in Spain.

As is traditional, the 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava is the first event of the FIA European Rally Championship and the Spanish Historic Rally Championships. For the second consecutive year, the rally has reached its full capacity with 240 teams, with other 7 vehicles joining them in the Legend category. In the Sporting  category there are about 170 cars, an extraordinary number in a historic rally and 70 teams in Regularity. All this makes the Rally Motul Costa Brava one of the main motorsports historic events in Europe.

A tribute to the Audi Quattro and the Lancia Stratos 

The fans strongly enjoyed this year’s celebration with the tribute to two legendary vehicles: the Audi Quattro on the 40th anniversary of the victory of Michele Cinotto and Emilio Radaelli in the Rally Costa Brava, and the Lancia Stratos on the 50th anniversary of their first world championship title. 

Regarding the pioneering Audi Quattro Cinotto and Radaelli headed the magnificent group photo with the ten Audi Quattro participating in the 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava, an image that will pass into the history of this rally.

The winners of the Costa Brava forty years ago participate in the Legend category with a replica of the car with which they won in 1984, prepared in Italy exclusively for this event. 

Bringing together so many Quattro in the same rally is an extraordinary milestone, even more so if it allows drawing all the evolution of this iconic car: from the “short” version called Sport Quattro to its maximum evolution within Group B, the unforgettable Quattro S1 E2. In addition, the Quattro is the current winner of the Rally Motul Costa Brava with “Zippo”/Nicola Arena at the wheel. This year they return to try to revalidate the triumph.

If the Quattro turned the world of rally around in the 1980s, the Stratos was a revolution in the 1970s. It was the first car specifically designed for rallying and it won three consecutive world manufacturers titles. The first was 50 years ago, in 1974, a success that was also commemorated in Girona. The great star of this tribute was the veteran Tony Fassina. The winner of the 1982 Rally Costa Brava is once again competing with his fine-tuned Stratos.

An entry list full of great names

Among the 240 cars in the 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava one can find many national and international rally champions, as well as many former Costa Brava winners who did not want to miss a group photo and the subsequent autograph session with the fans, who once again celebrated in the best possible way the start of the rally.

The entry list boasts names such as the already mentioned Fassina, “Zippo” and Cinotto/Radaelli, and many others like Simon Jean-Joseph (Subaru Impreza), two-times European Rally Champion; Ruben Zeltner (Porsche 911 GT3), two-time German champion; Donagh Kelly (BMW M3), Irish Rally champion, among many more.

Among the local teams a mention should also be made of Toni Rius and Mia Bardolet. The two former national rally champions will run at the wheel of the two original Seat Ibiza Kit Car that are part of the SEAT Históricos collection. The Spanish brand celebrates in the 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava the 40th anniversary of the popular Seat Ibiza and in addition to the Kit Car runs another four vehicles in Regularity.

Girona and Fornells de la Selva, key scenarios

The 72 Rally Motul Costa Brava has two key epicenters: the podium in Girona, next to the massive parc ferme where all the vehicles are gathered, and the popular Service Park in Fornells de la Selva where the cars will regroup and have their vehicles checked close to the spectators.

The seventy-second edition of the Rally Motul Costa Brava consists of 12 stages, 3 different each day with two loops each: Els Àngels, Santa Pellaia curt and Salions-Sant Grau curt on Friday, and Osor, Collsaplana and Cladells on Saturday for a total of 160 km chrono.

Despite the spectacular nature of the day, the joy was eclipsed after learning the sad news of the sudden death by natural causes of one of the participants in the previous hours, Josep Mª Molas, to whom a heartfelt tribute will be paid before the start of the rally on the podium.

Rally information already available on  web de RallyClassics