Despite the cancellation of the Greek Elpa Rally, the red line of the 2011 FIA European Rally Championship will initially pass along the Adriatic coast starting from Italy (MilleMiglia) before heading to Croatia and then the Bosporus, in Turkey.

With the 2011 regulations – which divide the events in 2 groups of 6, with 4 results counting for each group – the cancellation of Elpa Rally makes the result of the first three events even more important, as the Greek event becomes the first (compulsory) of the two events to be discarded in the first half of the calendar.

The deadline of May 31 st as the last possible day to register for the series is another crucial element: a good start will mean discouraging the arrival of other competitors. And Croatia is scheduled right around May 20 th …

Croatia Rally 2008

Meanwhile, 21 drivers are now registered for the 2011 FIA European Rally Championship. Obviously (the first race is in Italy and Croatia Rally is not far) about half of them have an Italian passport: the European champion Luca Rossetti with his Grande Punto Abarth, a brand which will aim at a third European title in a row, Corrado Fontana and Piero Longhi (Mini), Alessandro Perico, Luigi Fontana and Luca Betti (Peugeot), plus Renato Travaglia and Giandomenico Basso (with cars still to be determined) are candidates for the overall title while Stefano Albertini (Renault Megane N4), Giovanni Vergnano (Abarth 500) aim at the 2-wheel drive championship, like Slovenian Rok Turk (Citroen Ds3 R).

The other major announced protagonists are the Fords of Polish Maciej Oleksowicz and Michal Solowow, the Skoda of Czech Antonín Tlusťák, the Peugeot of Bulgarian Dimitar Iliev. The entries list is completed by Szymon Ruta, Maciej Rzeznik, Petar Gyoshev, Mathieu Biasion, Francesco Parli and Cyril Vosahlo.

Entries for the Croatia Rally are already open. To learn more about the rally and the side events which will unfold around the pedestrian zone in the centre of Rijeka (which will also host the service area), visit the rally website www.croatia-rally.com.