Rally Stella Alpina
 |
|
| Category | classic rally |
|---|---|
| Country |
 Italy, Trentino Alto-Adige
|
| Inaugural season | 1947 |
| Folded | 1955 |
| Last Drivers' champion |
 Olivier Gendebien
|
| Last Constructors' champion |
 Mercedes 300SL
|
| Official website | www |
The Stella Alpina Rally is an annual vintage motorsport race, held annually since 1984 in the Italian Alps. It is a historical reconstruction of the earlier Stella Alpina Rally competition, originally held from 1947 to 1955. It takes place in Italy, in the second weekend of July, and lasts for three days. The competition is organised by staff of the Scuderia Trentina Storica di Trento, headed by Enzo Siligardi, a member of the National Council of the Historical Italian Automobile Club. The main race is reserved for cars validated by A.S.I. and built before 31 December 1955. Cars built between 1956 and 1984 are eligible to compete in the special Stella Alpina Touring rally, which also takes place for three days in the traditional race format.
Stella Alpina was created in 1947 as an international race open to all kinds of sport automobiles. It was organized by the Automobile Club of Trento, in Italy.
The journalist Giovanni Canestrini had the idea of a race which starts and ends its stages in the same area. This made it easier for the journalists to follow the race without a rigorous regime of travel and writing. Canestrini called this “ideal race” Quadrifoglio Alpino, because it was divided into four stages within the alpine region of Merano, Italy. During the postwar period, the motoring movement of Trento was involved in a sort of collective euphoria transformed in “desire of doing”, in the will of creating something important and completely new. In the winter of 1946, the chairman of the Automobile Club of Trento, the count Sigismondo Manci, sought permission from the CSAI (Commissione Sportiva Automobilistica Italiana) of Rome for a change in the Mille Miglia track, in order to make it pass through Trento. The request was refused on a number of occasions.
Mancini did not give up and proposed to create a new rally race, which only takes place in Trento, utilizing the idea of Canestrini. The first edition of the race was launched in 1947 and there were 51 participants at the start line. In the second edition the track was extended to 1400 km and in 1949 the race became even harder, due to new rules from the organiser: Besides changes to the track, the maximum velocity of 15 different categories was increased. There were further changes in the regulations for the fourth edition, which transformed Stella Alpina in to a less strict and more open competition. The timed race trials occurred at the following mountain pass stages: Passo della Mendola, Passo Sommo, Passo dello Stelvio, Passo del Tonale, Passo Rolle, Passo di Falzarego and Monte Bondone.
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Wikipedia