Luca Cantamessa, 39, profited from his long experience of the sport to secure a top result on the 51^st Rallye Sanremo.

 

Despite a cautious start, the former Fiat Trophy and Italian Michelin Challenge winner succeeded in figuring in around 10^th spot until the end of the opening leg. However, a 30-second penalty incurred after Kronos Racing decided to change his exhaust system during a service halt, dropped him to 13^th overall in the overnight standings.

 

The next day saw Luca recover swiftly from the disappointment to put in a first class display, including a third fastest time on the infamous Colle d’Oggia stage, barely 10 seconds adrift of the event's eventual winner and newly-crowned 2009 IRC champion Kris Meeke.

 

On the following test, which was another Sanremo classic (Monte-Ceppo), Luca Cantamessa and his co-driver Piercarlo Capolongo succeeded in claiming the fifth quickest time to bring the BFGoodrich Drivers Team car back inside the top-10.

The Italian pair finally reached the Sanremo finish in seventh place, an outstanding result for the Peugeot 207 crew given the quality field which line up for the start of the Italian round, including no fewer than 24 S2000 cars.

 

Jacques Morelli (BFGoodrich's IRC programme manager): "Had it not been for his penalty, Luca would even have finished one place higher, but his position changes very little, in fact. The main thing was that he succeeded in flying the BFGoodrich flag high and proud from start to finish. He was a big hit with the spectators, too, thanks his quick times and spectacular driving style…"

 

Luca Cantamessa: "I would like to say a big thank you to everyone at BFGoodrich and Kronos Racing. We faced some pretty stiff competition this weekend, including the drivers who were scrapping for this year's IRC title, so I think our result is really quite honourable. I didn't have a single problem with my BFGoodrich tyres, but that doesn't surprise me. They helped me post some top times today and enabled me to fight my way back up the leaderboard following the penalty I incurred on Friday evening…"

The next port of call for the BFGoodrich Drivers Team operation will take the Kronos-run Peugeot to the forests of central Scotland for the RAC MSA Rally of Scotland on November 19-21.