The 22nd Tirreno-Messina Rally kicked off from the picturesque Piazza Duomo in Messina, the event organized by Top Competition with AC Messina and in perfect interaction with the Metropolitan City and the Municipal Administration of the City of the Strait, which this year rose to the prestigious national stage by hosting the ACI Sport 2025 Italian Rally Cup National Final.
After a day of preparations, it was the parlor of the Peloritana city that welcomed all 161 competitors lined up at the start of this long-awaited sporting competition, in the presence of the main city authorities and institutions: the mayor Federico Basile, the vice prefect Roberta Mancuso, Massimo Rinaldi, president of AC Messina, of the Sicilian ACs and delegate of ACI Sport Sicilia, Massimo Finocchiaro, councilor for sport of the Municipality of Messina, Massimiliano Minutoli, councilor for civil protection of Municipality of Messina, the president of ACI Sport SpA Giulio Pes di San Vittorio, Marco Rogano, general director of ACI Sport, Maria Grazia Bisazza, president of Top Competition.
After this glossy appetizer, the traffic lights came on on the two night special stages that characterized the evening’s sporting program: PS1 “Le Masse” and PS2 “Reginella”.
These first 7.5 timed kilometers have drawn up the first chronometric verdicts which elevate the Emilian Antonio Rusce with Gabriele Zanni, on Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 (Meteco Corse) to the absolute protagonist of the challenge. Behind him, a poker of Sicilian crews: the young Messina Emiliano La Torre who was visibly emotional on the starting platform and then translated his emotion into performance on today’s specials, navigated by Rosario Siragusano (Team Phoenix). Also doing well was Marco Pollara from Palermo with Giuseppe Princiotto (CST Sport), the nebroid Alessandro Casella with Sergio Scuderi and the local Marcello Rizzo with Antonio Pittella, all on Skoda Fabia RS. Among the two-wheel drive, the circle is tight around Rosario Cannino and Giuseppe Buscemi who made their voices heard even if they were not finalists, among whom Alessio Pollara with Sergio Raccuia started strongly, both on Peugeot 208 Rally4.
The scenario offered by the Metropolitan City of Messina was truly unparalleled and saw the cars parade both for the starting ceremony and at the end of today’s competitive section, when they returned to Piazza Duomo from where they will leave tomorrow for the long and decisive final day.
The alarm will ring soon, as the restart is set for 7:00. The program includes nine other special tests, for a timed total which at the end of the day will exceed 80 kilometers in total. They will be the special stages of the “Peloritani” of 13.4 kilometers, to be repeated twice, “Roccavaldina” of 5.4 kilometers and “Rometta” of 8.7 kilometers to be repeated three times and “Campo Italia” of 6.5 kilometers which will be held only once at the opening of the third lap. There will be three assistance sessions at the Village set up at PalaRescifina, the first at 7.18am, the mid-day one at 11.29am and the last at 2.20pm. The arrival, again in Piazza Duomo, is scheduled for 5.45pm.
Live television coverage will be entrusted to ACI Sport TV (Channel 228 SKY, 52 TivùSat and streaming acisport.tv), the official channel of the Federation. There will be three connections: the first at 8.54am from the PS4 “Roccavaldina”, followed by the PS8 “Rometta” starting from 1.08pm. The cameras will then look for the reactions of the winners at the end of the last special, SS11 from 5.02pm and will finally turn on again at 5.30pm with the final arrival.