PORSCHE WINS SNOWBOUND EPIC
Guido Barcella and Ombretta Ghidotti took their 1963 Porsche 356 to victory on the 31st Winter Marathon, their start number 13 proving lucky 12 months after they had to settle for second.
Starting and finishing in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, the 24-25 January rally had a new route for 2019. The 420km (260-mile) event criss-crossed the Dolomites over 11 mountain passes, challenging the 100 crews with some 65 regularities – the first of which was under the cover of darkness – and temperatures as low as -14°C.
The early advantage was with Franco Spagnoli and Giuseppe Parisi in their Fiat 508C, who were in front at the end of the first leg after 16 time controls. Lorenzo and Mario Turelli (Lancia Aprilia) were second from Barcella/ghidotti.
The Brescia-based Fiat team led until a mistake on day two when climbing the Pordoi Pass, but they held on to finish second. The final podium place was claimed by Gianmaria Aghem and Rossella Conti in a Lancia Fulvia Coupé.
The top crew aged under 30 was Zeno Mion and Nadia Guidoccio in a Fiat 850, while the first of just seven non-italian teams to see the finish – albeit in an Italian car – was Hiromichi Fukuda/hirai Makoto from Japan, in another 850. The sole British entry, Richard and James Cartwright in their MGA, was the final classified finisher.
The 2018 winners, Alberto Riboldi and Paolo Sabbadini, only managed 20th this year in their 1933 Fiat 508S Balilla Sport, but they didn’t go home emptyhanded. The day after the main rally, in two special timed regularities held on a frozen lake in Madonna di Campiglio, the pair secured the Digitech Trophy for pre-war cars as well as the Eberhard Trophy, fought out between the rally’s top 32 finishers.
‘The 420km route crisscrossed the Dolomites over 11 mountain passes, taking in some 65 regularities’