The 22nd Tirreno-Messina Rally comes to life today, with the spectacular departure from Piazza Duomo at 6.01pm and the first two special stages at night. Tomorrow, Sunday 16 November the second stage with another six tests before the arrival, again in Piazza Duomo under the bell tower from 5.45pm.
The data emerging from the analysis of the registrations for the 22nd Rally del Tirreno Messina photograph a 2025 ACI Sport Italian Rally Cup National Final of extraordinary breadth and variety, capable of best portraying the real dimension of the Italian rally movement in a land of great tradition such as Sicily.
The event organized by Top Competition demonstrates the liveliness of the environment and the first element that emerges concerns the geographical distribution. The rally records attendance from all 10 Zones of the Italian Rally Cup with a total of 320 participants, considering drivers and navigators separately.
Zone 9 (Sicily) confirms itself as the largest basin thanks to the evident desire of local crews to do well, with 85 pilots and 83 navigators for a total of 168 representatives. This is followed by Zone 8 (Abruzzo, Lazio, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria) with 29 participants, while Zone 4 (Veneto–Trentino) closes the hypothetical podium with 12 pilots and 11 navigators.
The data relating to the categories is also interesting. Rally4 is the most represented class with 27 entries, followed by Racing Start with 26 cars in all the various variations and by A5.
The fleet highlights the prevalence of two-wheel drive with numbers of absolute importance: around 50 Renault Clios in various preparations, almost 40 Peugeot 208 Rally4 and R2, around thirty Peugeot 106 between A5, A6, N2 and RSP. As for the top cars, there are 12 Skoda Fabia RS Rally2s, plus 5 in the R5 version, therefore 17 1600 cc 4x4s, which realistically will compete for the victory.
The demographic distribution of the participants is interesting and complete. The average age of pilots is under forty years old, while that of navigators is just under 37 years old,
a clear indicator of the generational transversality of the discipline.
The most experienced pilot is Giovanni Sottile, 76 years old, from Messina, while the youngest is Valentino Ledda, 18 years old, representing Sardinia. On the co-driver front, the most “experienced” is Franco Fedel, 70 years old from Rovereto, while the youngest is Luca Germanà, 19 years old, also arriving from the province of Messina.
The weight of the new generations is significant: there are 12 Under 25 pilots and 23 Under 25 navigators. On the opposite front, there are 38 Over 55 pilots and 21 Over 55 navigators. The figure of female participation is also significant: around 40 crews have at least one woman between pilot and navigator. A particular curiosity concerns the age combinations: some crews are over 120 years old overall, but there is no shortage of very young couples under 45, including Valentino Ledda and Claudio Mele and Giovanni Biondo with Luca Germanà.