Presented the itinerary of the 50 RallyRACC
17/06/2014
At the Auditori Diputació, in Tarragona, it has been presented today the 50 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España 2014, the penultimate round of the FIA WRC, to be held from 23 to 26 October with epicentre in Salou and PortAventura.
The most important local authorities have atttended the presentation: Josep Poblet, President of the Diputació de Tarragona and of the Patronat de Turisme; Pere Granados, major of Salou; Xavier Espasa, Director of the Agencia Catalana de Turisme; Benet Presas, Councillor-Delegate of Turisme of Salou; Fernando Aldecoa, General Director of PortAventura; Sebastià Salvadó, President of the RACC; and Aman Barull, Director of the Sport Area of the RACC and also Clerk of the Course for the RallyRACC.
The Rally Catalunya has been held since 1957, reaching its 50th edition this year, a fact that will be celebrated in a big way in the Tarragona area. The Costa Daurada has been the nerve centre of the event for the past 10 years, with Salou and PortAventura acting as excellent hosts to an established and innovating rally of the World Championship.
For this 50th edition, the RACC has prepared an itinerary made-up of largely known stages, though with special changes in design, and a timed stage that will probably be the star of the event, Escaladei, with a length of exactly 50 km, i.e. as many kilometres as the anniversary, paying a symbolic tribute to the half-century of history.
Thursday, 23 October: Shakedown on a mixed surface
The Shakedown or test stage will be the same as in the last editions of the event, laid-out in the area of Emprius, in Salou, with a mixed gravel and tarmac route and a total length of 2.94 km. This year, participants will have to negotiate again the asphalted roundabout, providing for a great show as the cars skid on their gravel tyres.
Friday, 24 October: Mixed day
One of the most important changes included in the itinerary of the 50 RallyRACC compared to the previous edition, is that the race will start with a mixed rally day instead of the usual start on asphalt, with three stages that will stand out due to their strong character and difficulty: Gandesa (7 km) and Pesells (26.59 km), completely on gravel, and the mixed Terra Alta (35.68 km), all of which will be run twice on Friday 24 October. The fact of starting on gravel will be a hard challenge for drivers and machines, as already witnessed in previous editions.
Saturday, 25 October: The longest stage in history
The first of the two rally days run on asphalt will be staged on Saturday 25, with the short Tivissa special (3.96 km, one single passage), the technical Colldejou stage (26.48 km) and the longest stage of the event Escaladei (50 km), a largely changed version of the stage known as El Priorat, but with a different route from halfway the stage and 50 km in length. The two last stages will be run twice. This will also be the day of the Salou urban stage (2.24 km), run completely on asphalted ground, especially designed for spectators to enjoy, based on the previous stages held on the Salou Promenade.
The above mentioned star stage of the rally, Escaladei, gathers current and traditional features, creating the longest stage in the history of the RallyRACC. The first 26 km are identical to El Priorat in 2013, but from the junction at Cabaces it continues on roads that had not been used since 2002: T-202 to la Vilella Baixa, la Vilella Alta and Cartoixa dEscaladei, and T-711 toTorroja del Priorat; a long loop that ends some 6 km before Gratallops, the town in which these 50 km route starts.
Sunday, 26 October: Power Stage and live TV
Two stages will be run twice on this day: La Mussara (20.48 km) and Riudecanyes (15.55 km), the second passage of which will be the Power Stage, providing additional points to the top three drivers. This special stage will be broadcasted live on TV, in 136 channels from 97 different countries.
PortAventura, the heart of the race
Although the specific activities of this 50th edition are yet to be defined, as well as those on Thursday 23 in Barcelona, the heart of the event will continue to be, for the tenth year in a row, the Costa Daurada. The service park, the rally headquarters and the media centre will keep their excellent location of recent years, i.e. PortAventura and its Convention Centre, offering the best location of the championship for the organisation, the FIA and the media representatives.
Salou, rally capital
The rally finish, the prize-giving ceremony and also a series of activities to be carried out along the weekend - the urban stage being the highlight- , will be framed by Salou and its Promenade.
The historic vehicles are back at the RallyRACC
After pausing for two editions, a selection of historic cars will be again at the RallyRACC, to show the protagonists of the World Championship from a couple of decades ago, from Group B to Group 4 and Group 2 cars, some of them unique machines with the decoration and the names of the drivers that drove them back then. These vehicles, the list of which will be announced at a later date, will be exhibited on Friday next to the podium in Salou and on Saturday and Sunday will be covering all the stages between the two passages of the rally cars.
50 years of rally, 10 in the Costa Daurada
The current RallyRACC is the heir of the Volta a Catalunya that was organised for the first time back in 1916 and got together with the "Rally Catalunya" in 1957, the year in which the history of the event started officially. After an 8-year break from 1964, the rally Catalunya came back stronger in 1973, starting a rising path that continues today.
Among the milestones of the race, there are the inclusion into the European Championship in 1980, the merger with the Rally Costa Brava in 1988 and the nomination as a scoring round of the World Rally Championship in 1991. The highlight of the world championship career arrived in 2005, with the change of name into: RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, and the headquarters moving to Salou and PortAventura.
Special rally plate "50th edition"
In order to commemorate this important 50th anniversary, the RACC has created a special rally plate, with a different shape, highlighting the number 50 on one side, and golden colour, a plate that will surely become a special piece for collectors. The RallyRACC 50 plate was presented today.
The whole championship in the Costa Daurada
The 50 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España 2014, will be the 12th and penultimate scoring round for all classes of the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship: Drivers, Co-Drivers and Manufacturers/Teams, WRC2 and WRC3. The event will also be a scoring round for the single-make championship DMack Fiesta Trophy (including three Spanish participants) and, at a national level, for the 2014 RMC Grant.
Sponsors in 2014
The 50 RallyRACC counts on the best technical infrastructure and human support, as well as on the collaboration of companies and the support of town and city councils, and institutions that offer the essential support in the territory. The Tarragona County Council, the Tourism Board of the Tarragona County Council and the Costa Daurada, the Salou Town Council, the Tourism Board of Salou, PortAventura, the support of the Catalan Tourist Board (Catalunya) and the Barcelona City Council, as well as the collaboration of SEAT, official car of the event.