15 March 2014.Il Ciocco (Lu) - Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta, on the gas powered Ford Fiesta R5 set up by BRC Gass Equipment, ended on top the first day of the 37th Rally del Ciocco and Valle del Serchio, the opening round of the Italian Rally 2014 Championship. The Italian driver proceeded the Veronese reigning champion Umberto Scandola, on Skoda Fabia Super2000, and the several times Italian champion from Tuscany Paolo Andreucci who, is taking a still raw brand new Peugeot T16 R5 to the world debut on his home roads. The two ended respectively 37.5s and 54.1s short of the leader. The fourth place went to the Sicilian driver Andrea Nucita, who surprised everyone on his Peugeot 207 Super 2000 as the latter has been slowed down by the breaking of an axle shaft after holding the second place for a long part of the race.
Giandomenico Basso got the lead in the opening stage and strongly kept it through the sectors. The race is still open though. The short but treacherous day two scheduled for tomorrow will comprise four stages for a total of 34 timed kilometers.

In the Italian Production Rally Championship the duel is quite open between the Renault New Clio driven by Ivan Ferrarotti and that of Fabrizio Andolfi Junior. Alex Vittalini had a solid day and is fighting also for the Citroen Racing Trophy. In the Italian Rally Junior, Giacomo Scattolon, on Peugeot 208 R2, set the quickest time ahead of Luca Panzani, who is leading the other single branded trophy: the Renault Trofeo Twingo R2 Top.

Back to the absolute classification, strong performance by Rudy Michelini , on a Peugeot 207 Super 2000 run by Procar Motorsport, and by Andrea Perego, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. Unlucky day for Alessandro Perico who had to retire during the first stage due to some technical problems.

Engines will be fired up again tomorrow, Sunday 16th March for Day Two that will involve 33,96 timed kilometers on the "Cerretoli" (10,44 km) and "Massa-Sassorosso" (6,54km), both stages to be repeated twice. The final flag will be waved at the Porta Ariostesca of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana at 12:45 (local time).

A short radio connection with Radio-Radio is scheduled at 11:45 while the usual ACI Sport Live Streaming will follow from 12:35 to 13:50, right from the finish line of the rally. The streaming will be available through the websites acisportitalia.it and sportube.tv.

All information and updates will be present at acisportitalia.it and at the official web site of the event cioccorally.it

Final Classification Day One of the 37th Rally Il Ciocco and Valle del Serchio: 1.Basso-Dotta(Ford Fiesta R5)in 1'17'40.5;2.Scandola-D'Amore(Skoda Fabia S2000) at 37.5;3.Andreucci-Andreussi(Peugeot 208 R5) at 54.1; 4.Nucita-Princiotto (Peugeot 207 S2000) at 1'04.9; 5.Michelini-Angilletta(Peugeot 207 S2000) at 2'27;6.Ciavarella-Perna(Ford Fiesta R5) at 2'28 ;7.Perego-De Luis(Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) at 3'15.4 ;8. Ferrarotti-Castiglioni (Renault New Clio) at 5'03.4; 9.Andolfi-Casalini ( Renault New Clio R3) at 5'12.9;10. Scattolon-Grimaldi (Peugeot 208 R2) at 6'07.3.