Experienced Italian co-driver Flavio Guglielmini was involved in a fatal accident yesterday while taking part in the European Rally Championship counting Rally Bulgaria in a Peugeot 207 S2000 alongside Swiss driver Brian Flavio (above). Flavio Guglielmini enjoyed five years as co-driver to Giandomenico Basso with the high point in the relationship coming in 2003 when the pair contested the Italian Rally Championship (CIR) in the exciting front-wheel-drive Punto S1600 tackling events such as the Rally Mille Miglia (top), the Rally delle Alpi Orientali where the duo took a class victory and second place overall (middle), and the Rally del Salento (bottom) on the way to winning the Trofeo Fiat Punto.

Experienced Italian co-driver Flavio Guglielmini – well-known to Fiat rally fans for his giant-killing successes in the Fiat Seicento Sporting and Punto S1600 alongside Giandomenico Basso – was sadly killed yesterday while taking part in the Rally Bulgaria, the fifth round of this year’s European Rally Championship. The 38-year-old from the seaside resort town of Marina di Pietrasanta, near Pisa on the west coast of Italy, was a highly experienced navigator who had earned a string of titles on the Italian rally scene over the last decade.

Early on Sunday morning, on the first stage of the second day, Guglielmini, who was co-driving for Swiss driver Brian Lavio in a Peugeot 207 S2000, was killed instantly when the car left the track and hit a tree on the 23.68 km-long SS7 “Sestrimo” stage. Lavio was taken to hospital, but his injuries are reportedly not life-threatening. The rally, which was being led by Italian Giandomenico Basso (Grande Punto Abarth S2000), was stopped immediately.

In a twist, Flavio Guglielmini was in fact a former co-driver of Basso’s, the pair rallying together with much success during the late 1990s and up to as recently as 2003, driving cars including the tiny Fiat Cinquecento Sporting and Fiat Seicento Sporting, as well as the Fiat Punto S1600 for the Top Run team. Guglielmini had first come to international attention in 1998, when he was co-driver to Emauele Dati and the pair claimed an excellent class podium (third in A/5) on the 1998 Rallye Monte Carlo in the diminutive Fiat Cinquecento Sporting. The same year he became Basso’s co-driver and the pair contested a string of World Rally Championship events over the next three years, starting with the Rallye Sanremo in 1998 in the cockpit of the Seicento Sporting.  In the following year’s Rallye Monte Carlo, Gugelmini co-drove Basso to an impressive class victory in the Cinquecento. In 2001 the pair were back on the world stage with a Top Run Fiat Punto S1600, and in six outings they took a second in class on the Rallye Catalunya-Costa Brava and third on the Tour de Corse. They also contested the Acropolis Rally, Neste Rally Finland, Rallye Sanremo and Network Q Rally that year. Their efforts earned them fifth place in the World Championship standings for Super 1600 cars. 

During that period, Guglielmini contested a large number of Italian rallies, mostly alongside Basso in an array of Fiats, including the Punto S1600 and Punto Kit Car, and class wins and titles followed.  Some of these class victories ranged from in 1999 on the Rally dell’Isola d’Elba, Rally Valle d’Aosta and Rally Appennino Reggiano with Basso in the tiny Seicento Sporting, up to the 2002 Rallye Costa Smeralda Terra Sarda in the Punto Kit Car. In the years between, the pair were the runners-up in the Trofeo Fiat Punto Kit in 2000. Alongside another quick driver, Gianluca Vita, he also achieved much success with class wins in 2000 on the Rally del Ciocco, Rally delle Alpi Orientali, Rally Coppa Città di Lucca and 1000 Miglia (Renault Megane Maxi) and Rally di San Marino (Renault Clio Williams), which netted the pair the CIR’s Trofeo Privati and runner-up spot in the Campionato Europeo 2RM. In fact that year (2000) Guglielmini collected no less than 11 class wins co-driving alternatively between Basso and Vita. The next year he took a class victory with Basso in the Punto Kit Car on the Rally Costa Smeralda Terra Sarda Rally, on the way to winning the Italian Rally Trophy – Cup for 2WD Cars, as well as a back-to-back class win on the Coppa Città di Lucca (Peugeot 306 Maxi) with Vita, and also a class win on the Rally della Marca, this time alongside Alberto Perini (Peugeot 306 Maxi).

In 2003, Guglielmini contested the Italian Rally Championship (CIR) with Basso in the exciting front-wheel-drive Punto S1600 and the pair took a class win on the Rally delle Alpi Orientali (second overall) on the way to winning the Trofeo Fiat Punto (and eleventh place in the ERC), while a one-off appearance alongside Alex Fiorio on the Rally Altopiano 7 Comuni in a Rubicone Corse-run Subaru Impreza WRX netted Group N victory and third place overall. A successful partnership came to an end that season, with Basso moving on to sit alongside Luigi Pirollo, but Guglielmini was back in the CIR the following year, alongside youngster Matteo Gamba in the Punto S1600, with the high point being victory in the Trofeo Punto Abarth series on the Rally del Ciocco.

In 2005 a new partnership was formed with another young driver, Denis Colombini, again contesting the CIR with a Punto S1600. This relationship also netted outright victory that year on a regional event, the Rally delle Marche-Costa Romagnola, this time in a Group N Mitsubishi Evo VI, as well as a class win on the Rally Ronde di Cesena, and a year later they switched to a Subaru Italia-run Impreza WRX STi which, after seven consecutive wins, netted the Under-25 title for Colombini in record time. Last year Guglielmini also contested the Rallye Sanremo alongside Jaqoco Araldo in a Renault Clio R3. Away from rallying Guglielmini was involved in the presentation of cars and driving instruction for carmakers including Mercedes, Mercedes Veicoli Industriali, Smart, BMW, Saab, Lancia, Fiat, Toyota, Subaru and Citroen.