javier romagosa
El X Historic Costa Brava Rally, organized by the RallyClasics Club, will be held between Thursday, April 11 and Sunday, April 14, with departure and arrival in the municipality of Lloret de Mar (Girona), which is once again the epicenter of the event. During four stages, 103 teams (of the 120 planned in the initial quota) will travel 1.424 kilometers of distance, of which approximately half will correspond to regular sections on mountain roads. The content of the first two stages will not be made public until the 10th but, for now, it is available this schedule.
[alert type = 'info'] The itineraries and maps of the stages are already available, you can consult them clicking here [/ alert]
Fundamentally, it is an FIVA regularity test in which, as in the Historic Monte-Carlo Rally, the route must be traveled at the average speed set by the organizer (up to a maximum of 50 km / h), being penalized both lead and lag, measured to the tenth of a second at secret controls. When taking place in open traffic, participants must respect the traffic rules at all times, threatening exclusion to those who violate them. As collected in the regulation:
[su_quote] «Teams must absolutely respect the traffic code. For this purpose, there may be Commissioners on Route, who as “judges of fact” can rule on the exclusion “in situ”. Keeping your high beam lights on when you meet other road users may be grounds for immediate exclusion. Passages through towns will be especially observed, where teams must exercise extreme caution and set a good example of coexistence with their inhabitants for the good image of regularity rallies (avoid unnecessary noise, inappropriate speeds, extra headlights...). If we demonstrate respect and civility behind the wheel, historic vehicles and their drivers will also be respected." [/su_quote]
This rally, scoring for the European Regularity Challenge, is open to the participation of classic cars and motorcycles, the latter being a tandem of two riders. The scope is international, so this year, like the previous ones, there will be registrants from Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Switzerland, and even Mexico and New Zealand, among others. In addition, they can run it alone or as part of a specific team (apparently, this time there will be about seven teams in the running).
The most represented brands -always privately-, which you can consult in the official list of participants that we put at your disposal, are Porsche, Volkswagen, BMW and Seat; its models, and those of the other contending houses, have normally been selected from among those manufactured in the time interval 1946-1984. Meanwhile, the dominant sex at the wheel will be the male: there will be practically no female drivers during this edition (yes co-drivers), which is a shame, since there is even a special Women's Trophy planned.
Also, among other categories there will be a classification of lovers: that of those equipment without other measuring devices than the standard ones on your vehicle. The spirit that motivates this possibility is to recover the spirit of the rallies of yesteryear.
The base of the organization of the X Rally Costa Brava Historico will be installed in the Hotel Excelsior, on the Lloret de Mar promenade, where, as always, the closed park and the start and finish podium will be located. The technical checks will take place at the Pavelló Poliesportiu (sports center), between 14:16 p.m. and 11:XNUMX p.m. on the XNUMXth.
Among the four stages, among which there will be little time to rest, perhaps the most interesting is the last one. In it, after having the necessary time for dinner, the pilots will start a tour in the purest Turini night, totally nocturnal. Starting at 22:30 p.m., there will be a short but hard route with more than 100 km of regularity, which will end at 3:10 in the morning. Officially it has been given the name of "Nit of the Costa Brava".
The Costa Brava Rally |
| It is one of the oldest rallies held in Spain. It consists of a tour of the area of the same name and, at first, it was organized by the Peña Motorista Diez por Hora. Its first edition dates back to 1953, although at that time in this type of competition there were no speed stages, these being limited to regularity only. The inclusion of a speed test was carried out only in the ninth edition, to resolve possible ties that occurred in the final classification. |
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In the sixties the Rally Costa Brava reached national category, being included in the scoring events for the Spanish Championship, with which the best specialists in the country began to take part. In 1969, the competition acquired an international character, and the definitive step was taken in 1972, when it was included in the calendar of scoring events for the European Championship. On the other hand, in 1988, the interest in placing a Catalan race in the World Championship motivated its union with the Rally Catalunya, which would be renamed Rallye Catalunya-Costa Brava / Rally de España and with which the objective pursued in 1991 was achieved.
As of 2005, the new FIA regulations made it necessary to unify the test center and the service park in the same place. That also meant having to look for special stages around that center, which made it impossible to consider that the competition would continue on the Costa Brava. Therefore, it was transferred to the Costa Dorada. At present, two tests are held that bear the old and famous name: the Costa Brava Rally properly said, protected by the FEA, whose next edition will be number 61; and the Historic Costa Brava Rally, both featuring vintage vehicles. They are organized by the RallyClassics Club. —– Sources extracted in this box, except for the last paragraph: • SALVAT, J. (DIR.): Encyclopedia Salvat del Automóvil, Estella, 1975 |
