The last time Fiat tasted outright success in the FIA Junior World Rally Championship was at Rallye Sanremo in 2003, when Mirco Baldacci and Giovanni Bernacchini won their first victory in the series fought out by young drivers. Then they drove a privately entered Hi-Tec Fiat Punto Super1600 and their challengers had other names and other cars, but the “Italian” crew was seriously committed to target the victory, although Baldacci has never preferred tarmac, being a driver from the Sanmarinese school, where the great gravel stages once deserved to be chosen as the proud tracks for a World Rally round.
 

After two years dogged by a lot of bad luck on almost every round of the series - which culminated with a rollout during the FIA WRC Wales Rally 2004 at the wheel of the official works Suzuki Ignis Super1600, and while occupying the top position, and a theoretical victory, at Monte Carlo Rally this year with the Fiat Punto Super1600 backed by the Fiat Squadra Corse, if you consider the sum of the stage times excluding the failing one, where Baldacci hit a small wall - the Sanmarinese driver finally turned in a well-deserved victory on the roads of the Tour de Corse, valid as French round of the 2005 FIA World Rally Championship. Before Tour de Corse, the mixed Sanmarinese-Italian crew had taken part in some important outings on the tarmac tracks, when Fiat Squadra Corse called them to help Giandomenico Basso in his quest for the European Rally Championship crown. Baldacci thus gained a lot of experience and useful sealed surface practice just in time for the closing rounds of the Junior World Rally Championship.
 

Although the Junior challengers' list has been reduced by the absence of two of its starring actors: the Briton Guy Wilks and reigning JWRC champion Swede Per-Gunnar Andersson – the Suzuki Swift Super1600 drivers electing the seventh round of JWRC as their missed race, according to the Junior Championship 2005 rules which state that Junior drivers have to accumulate points in only seven of eight rallies that make up the series – the event was basically characterised by the dominance of the Citroen drivers, who won 11 special stages out of the 12 that made up this year's edition of the Tour de Corse.

 

Young Spaniard Daniel Sordo, protégé of two-time World Champion Carlos Sainz, had in his mind the idea of claiming the Junior Championship title a round in advance, while the Scot, Kris Meeke, was also turning in a great performance. However they didn’t take into account one fact, one that Baldacci and Bernacchini know so well: bad luck. The Fiat rally team was consistently close to the pace, just a little slower than the Citroen crews, but at same time maintaining a very comfortable pace that let them run fast enough without taking too many risks on the treacherous and very slippery asphalt of Corsica.
 

After the four stages that made up the Friday leg, Baldacci was 1 minute and 35 seconds behind the provisional leader, and standing standing third in the rally leaderboard. Surprises then came thick and fast on Saturday's leg, when Meeke suffered a failure of his Citroen's steering arm, costing him around 18 seconds, and sliding him out the points zone. On special stage seven it was Sordo's turn in the bad luck lottery: his engine stalled twice and Baldacci achieved his only special stage win letting him close up half of the time gap on the provisional leaderboard. During the next stage it got even worse for Daniel Sordo, he was was forced to retire for a continuation of the same issue: the engine kept on stalling due to a recurring electronic malfunction. He elected to retire, but returned to the rally next morning under the Superally rules.
 

 

By the end of the second leg, Baldacci had climbed right to the top of the JWRC leaderboard and was able to head to overnight Parc Fermé enjoying a healthy advantage of 3 minutes and 9.9 seconds over the second placed driver, Kosti Katajamaki at the wheel of a factory Suzuki Ignis Super1600. The final day, yesterday, saw Mirco Baldacci and Giovanni Bernacchini setting off with just one a target: preserving first position and staying closely focused on reaching the finish line. In fact all the stages were won by Dani Sordo, who was able to regain second final position and claim eight important points in the Junior Championship 2005 title hunt.
 

The Fiat crew safely reached the podium in Ajaccio, securing the first victory in 2005 for the Fiat Punto Super1600, which is still a bit less evolved than the Citroen C2 on tarmac, and the Suzuki models, Ignis and Swift, on gravel, due to the engineering concentration by the N Technology development team on their forthcoming ace, the Fiat Punto Super2000, which will make an eagerly awaited worldwide debut during the Rallye Monte Carlo next January, although a full racing preview is expected at Rally of Monza during late November.

 

The second Fiat Punto factory driver, Luca Cecchettini, finished in sixth position with a gap of just under 10 minutes to Baldacci, a colourless performance which means he is expected to jettison the Fiat work's colours at the end of this season. The final round of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship will take place next weekend in Catalunya, where the JWRC will choose its next champion, although Daniel Sordo is in reality almost home and dry. The Spaniard will have home advantage, he is renown as a tarmac specialist, and holds has a strong eight points advantage over Wilks. Mirco Baldacci though will be seeking once again to demonstrate his pace and shown just how much he is worth to Fiat who will have much sought after Super2000 seats up for grabs next year.