12/09/2012 – Five races at the back and three still to go for the Italian Rally Championship, the series oraganized by ACI CSAI that will witness a crucial round on the streets of the 32nd Rally of San Martino di Castrozza e Primiero. The race organized by San Martino Corse will be started by the opening ceremony on Thursday 13 September and will have several interesting themes. The protagonists of the Rally Asfalto Trophy, group B, will be on track as will the Historic Rally drivers.

As regarding the Italian Rally Championship, the title challenge is restricted to Paolo Andreucci for Peugeot, and Umberto Scadola for Skoda. Paolo Andreucci due to the classification lead has an advantage over his rival: “Well – admitted the Tuscany driver – should I get the victory, my advantage to Umberto would become quite important. There are a lot of calculations to be done though, such as those related to discards therefore it is quite early to tell something".

But Umberto Scandola, second in the classification at 87 (the leader Paolo Andreucci stands at 108) does not give up anyway: “I worked in the gym following a specific programme to keep me fit – said the Skoda driver – and we run a test recently. The Fabia has a huge potential as showed by the results obtained by Skoda in the championships they take part in".

Giandomenico Basso on Ford, will aim to win the race and be the needle of the scale of the title awarding . So far he won two rounds of the Tricolored championship: the 1000 Miglia and the Targa Florio, but he has also been racing in the races of the Intercontinental series IRC. In San Martino he can win with his Ford Fiesta R and influence the title challenge should he place himself between the contenders. There will be a lot of other drivers to keep an eye on anyway. Among them, the Peugeot's trio made by the driver from Bergamo,Matteo Gamba, who is leading the independents standings, the young Stefano Albertini, who will be racing thanks to a shared programme by ACI CSAI, Pirelli, Racing Lions and Peugeot, and Alessandro Perico, fast driver that did not manage to show his best this year.

The race of the Italian Rally will start on Thursday 13 September with technical verifications between 8.30 and 13.30 (GMT+2) in Fiera di Primiero. The start ceremony will follow at 18.30. Engines will then roar between 8.21 and 20.20 for the first long leg of the Rally comprising seven stages. The second leg will have four more stages will start at 8.25 on Saturday 15 September and will finish at the Piazzale Rosalpina of S. Martino di Castrozza, at 17.30. The drivers will go through a total of 565,57 Km, 152,09 of which will be timed in the 12 scheduled stages.