09/02/2017

The Porsche 904 exJuan Fernández and a Porsche 911 exPaco Torredemer, among the entrants

Barcelona, 9 February 2017. The entry period for the 1st Rally Catalunya Històric Trofeu Dues Catalunyes is in its last week and some of the entrants are of exceptional interest, thus confirming the will of the RACC to organise a regularity race for classic cars focussing above all on quality. A truly select group of drivers and machines will be trying to write their names in the history book of an event that recalls the great years of open road racing.

One of the most valuable machines will be the Porsche 904 GTS from 1964 which was used in those times by Juan Fernández. This duo, which achieved huge success, participated amongst others, in the 1964 Rally Catalunya (finishing 2nd and 1st in speed), as well as in the Rallye de les Dues Catalunyes in 1964 and 1965. In the 1st Rally Catalunya Històric, this car, which is in an impeccable state of conservation, will be driven by Carlos Beltrán, head of the Nou Onze Team, the specialist that is now in charge of the machines maintenance.

The entry list also includes Víctor Sagi Montplet (Porsche 911 S), a great specialist and son of the winner of the first edition of the Rallye de les Dues Catalunyes, Víctor Sagi Vallmitjana. The vehicle that will be used by Sagi and his son Víctor Sagi as well- will be a machine that belonged to Paco Torredemer.

In addition to participants from Spain, there are also participants coming from Belgium, France, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey. The names on this provisional entry list are, amongst others, Carles Miró (Porsche 911 SC), Tere Armadans (VW Golf GTI), Xavier Piña-Sergi Giralt (Ford Escort), José Luis Marcó (Porsche 911 T), Oriol Vilanova (Alfa Romeo 2500 Pininfarina Cabriolet), etc. Worth to be mentioned is also the presence of great French and Belgian specialists like Jean-Michel Coll (Porsche 911 S), David Expósito (Ferrari Dino 308), Jacques Evrard (Porsche 911), Henk Van del Broeke (Alpine-Renault A-110) or Jean-Luc George (Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV).

The 1st Rally Catalunya Històric "Trofeu Dues Catalunyes" will recall the most important part of the rally history of the country, namely the Rallye Catalunya, created in 1957, which will be holding its 53 edition as scoring round towards the FIA World Rally Championship. The event wants to recall the history of another event organised by the RACC as well, the Rallye de les Dues Catalunyes, which was staged between 1960 and 1965 with Barcelona and Perpignan as start or finish points.

The 1st Rally Catalunya Històric Trofeu Dues Catalunyes will have an itinerary of 736.31 km including 147.43 km of controlled regularity, distributed into 15 stages on roads closed to traffic, all of which will be different (no stage will be repeated. The stages will be run with averages of up to 55 km/h and there will two types of averages to choose from.

The start will be given on 24 February (15h) at Avinguda de la Catedral in Barcelona, followed by a neutralization in Viladrau (19.42h) and finish of the leg in Santa Coloma de Farners (Hotel Mas Solà, ****), from 21.35h. At 8 a.m. on Saturday 25 February, the start will be given for the second leg, with destination Perpignan (13.06h), to regroup, have lunch, and to continue the way at 14.36h with destination Parc del Forum in Barcelona, where the cars are expected to arrive from 20.45h. The closure dinner and the prize-giving ceremony will start at 22.00h at Hotel SB Diagonal Zero (****), where participants will also stay overnight.

Information on the event: www.rallycatalunyahistoric.com. The exact itinerary, the regularity test stages and the entry list will be made known on 22 February, at the official presentation of the event.