CATEGORY 4 (1982 - 1990)

Category 4 will see six entries, but all eyes will be on the two cars that are challenging for the 2022 FIA EHRC Driver and Co-Driver titles.  Mats Myrsell and Esko Junttila travel to Sanremo on the back of a win in the Rally Elba Storico, with Myrsell currently on 95 points and Junttila on 104 points for the Co-Drivers Championship.  

The Swedish crew will be competing once again in the Ford Escort RS Cosworth 4x4 and will be facing the challenge of the Lancia Rally 037 in the hands of Finns Ville Silvasti and Risto Pietilainen.  Silvasti is currently on 87 points, just 8 behind his rival for the drivers’ title. Pietilainen is on 85 points, 19 behind Junttila.  

However, only the best six scores count towards the overall title and while the Finns can drop a zero and two 1-point scores, their Swedish rivals have a 1, 9 and 14 as their potential dropped scores, so the situation is closer than it first appears.

The Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4x4 of Hungarian crew Tibor Erdi Jr and Zoltan Csoko will be making their sixth appearance in the EHRC and will be looking for a second win of the 2022 season after narrowly missing victory in Elba by just one second.

Juergen Geist will be joined in the Opel Manta 400 by fellow German Nico Otterbach, while Spanish crew Carlos Sampayo Cao and Irene Serrano Granda will be out in the distinctive Renault 11 Turbo.  The final entry is Category 4 is the E1 class Skoda Favorit 136 L driven by Czech crew Oldrich Kovarik and Marek Kapic.

CATEGORY 3 (1976 – 1981)

With both the Driver and Co-Drivers’ title decided before the Sanremo Historic Rally, with Italian driver ‘Zippo’ winning the Drivers’ title for the second time in the Audi quattro and Germany’s Renate Mayr winning the Co-Drivers’ title in the Volvo 244 she shares with husband Siegfried, the entry for Category 3 consists of just two cars.

2019 Category 3 Champions Karl Wagner and Gerda Zauner will be hoping to finish the season on a high note after being robbed of victory in Lahti and Elba by a persistent gearbox linkage issue with the Porsche 911 SC, retiring from the lead in both events.   

Rallye du Chablais Category 3 winners Tim Metcalfe and John Connor will be starting their third EHRC event of the 2022 season in their Ford Escort RS 1800. 

CATEGORY 2 (1970 – 1975)

There are five Category 2 entries with championship leaders Pietro Corredig and Sonia Borghese, in the BMW 2002 Tii, going up against the Porsche 911 Carrera RSR of Carlo Mylle and Olivier La Porte.  Corredig is currently on 64 points, 10 points ahead of Mylle in the Drivers’ Championship standings.  

Because Olivier Laporte didn’t compete with his Belgian teammate in Switzerland, he is currently on 36 points, 28 points behind Sonia Borghese, who is on 64 points, and, with a maximum of 20 points available, Laporte is not able to catch his Italian rival.  

The only rival to Sonia Borghese in the Co-drivers’ championship is Giovanni Campeis (51 points), but Paolo Pasutti and Giovanni Campeis have not entered the Sanremo Historic Rally, and this hands Sonia Borghese the 2022 FIA EHRC Category 2 Co-drivers’ title.

Norwegian crew Valter Jensen and Erik Pedersen has swapped their BMW M3 E30 for their Ford Escort RS 1800 for the final rally, the same car they finished a close second to Will Graham on the Lahti Historic Rally in August.

CATEGORY 1 (1969 and earlier)

The Category 1 titles have also already been won by Britain’s Ernie and Karen Graham, so there are just two entries for the oldest cars on the event. 

Multiple Category 1 champions Antonio Parisi and Giuseppe D’Angelo will be competing in the Porsche 911 S, the car that they won the Rally Elba Storico last month. Their Rododendri Historic Rally teammates Carlo Fiorito and Marina Bertonasco will be competing against them once again for the final time this season in the orange BMW 2002 Ti.

The 37th Sanremo Historic Rally in Italy is Round 9 of the 2022 FIA European Historic Rally Championship and will take place on the 13-15 October.

CLICK HERE for the championship standings after Round 8