09.01.2021 – Great spectacle and polar cold at the opener of The Ice Challenge, the Italian Ice Championship 2021 organized by BMG Motor Events, that took place on Saturday, January 9th. The exciting opener did not disattend expectations and offered one of the most beautiful and complete races of the Italian snow-ice series.
The victory among cars went again to a member of the Bormolini family, that has been the home-prophet. This time Andrea, in the Skoda Fabia run by B.B. Racing, had the upper hand thanks to a good crescendo of performance that allowed him to pip the reigning Italian Champion Ivan Carmellino, who was second in the Fiat Punto Proto. The battle has been fierce between the two as Carmellino led the pack in the first heat, but then he was hit by bad luck when he was slowed down when a rival went off. This does not take anything away from the strong performance of Bormolini, who was the first also in Class 6 and continued the streak of successful results of his family, that this time around competed on full ranks on the home turf.
“I did not expected this/em> – Bormolini stated. – I honestly have to admit that I was lucky because Ivan and I competed in different heats and therefore I did not experience the same difficulties he had in the final heat. It has been a nice battle. We will give it another go tomorrow, but it won’t be easy”.
“We will have to do something about the Bormolinis in Livigno – Carmellino joked – every year I find one of them in my way! I think we did a good race, we are focused and will try again tomorrow”. The driver of the New Driver’s Team secured the victory in Class 8.
The third place went to Alberto Battistolli, who also won Class 3 in the Skoda Fabia R5 of Scuderia Palladio. The Italian driver was at his debut in the series but managed to get a great P2 after the first heat and defended himself all the way to the flag securing the podium thanks to an effective and spectacular driving.
Oriano Agostini (Citroen DS3 N5/Hawk Racing Club) won Class 4, Piergiacomo Riva (Fiat Panda 4X4/Meteco Corse) Class 5, Stefano Nadalini (Opel Corsa) Class 2 and Luca Fiorenti (Renault Clio R3C/Leonessa Corse) Class 1. Emanuele Lagrotteria secured a deserved win in Class 7 in his Equivoque Jeep (Meccanica Belforte).
Raffaele Silvestri claimed a strong win in kart-cross. The Nico Racing’s driver completed a stunning day taking an important win ahead of a great Christian Tiramani (Grisurallysport A.S.D.), both on Planet Kart Cross K3. Silvestri led also the reigning champion Simone Firenze, who was at the debut on the ice in the new Semog Bravo Sport (Grisurallysport A.S.D). Andrea Crugnola also had a positive debut in a K3 challenger, as he put in great times and has room for improvement in day two.
Craig Breen has put in spectacular and very fast driving. The Hyundai official driver got to Livigno to enjoy the weekend in his Side by Side/Buggy, that is the new category of The Ice Challenge. He lapped on the same times as the best kart-cross drivers and secured an easy win in Class 12 leading Vittorio Gonella and Claudio Esposto. “I had a lot of fun – the Irishman stated – the circuit is very nice and technical, this was the goal, the day has been sunny so everything went well”.
Rachele Somaschini (Citroen C3 R5/Seandsky) had a remarkable debut on the ice. Despite she did not have any experience on the ice, the Italian driver that is also the Ambassador of Fondazione Ricerca Fibrosi Cistica, closed her effort in P20 overall displaying spectacular driving. “Maybe too spectacular – she smiled at the end – I need to improve my driving to be more effective and cleaner, but I had a lot of fun”.
The Legend Cars, the fun American hot rod featuring 140 bhp that were at the debut in The Ice Challenge thanks to the resolution of Gianluca Borghi and of the patron of the brand in Italy Adriano Monti, were a story apart. In the exciting challenge on day one, Alan Simoni claimed the win leading Maurizio Rossi and Gianluca Borghi.
The Round 2 of The Ice Challenge 2021 will get underway tomorrow on the same circuit that will be run in the opposite direction though. The day will kick-off at 8:00 with free practice, qualifying and the three heats. The racing action will be available through the live streaming feed from Facebook @theicechallengerally. The three connections held today totalled nearly 30,000 views.