The three-day marathon of the 2027 World Rally Championship concludes on the podium in Olbia. In just a few days, 800 kilometers in total, including 500 kilometers of special stages. The victories were won by a factory rider on a factory Aprilia, and the crew from the North, Benko-Sykora, Taurus. Sardinia, with its beauty and power, won. It was a very tough, difficult rally-raid. This is also why they want to return…
Olbia, May 17, 2026. Don’t you know who won? Me neither! That is, beyond photocells and transponders, I don’t know if the winner was a driver or a stunning blonde, a two-wheeled or four-wheeled machine, a motorcycle or a car. One thing I do know: an island won. If I had to let my soul speak, I’d quote the foreigner in the caravan: “I want residency here to live, and a passport with no expiration date to race in the World Championship for 10 years!” There, the word has spread. Well, it was said: the Sardegna Rally Raid is the FIA-FIM Rally-Raid World Championship Candidate Event for 2027.
The final day of the Sardegna Rally Raid, a spectacular sunny day in Sardinia, marked a sensational conclusion. After three stages, 800 kilometers, and 500 kilometers of special stages, the “multicolored caravan” concluded its competitive journey on the final podium in Olbia. Three days of incredibly technical mountain routes, forestry tracks, and the invisible tracks of road books, they escaped the fascinating labyrinths of the Rally Raid to achieve a record that brings both satisfaction and prestige.
The main event, the backbone of the event, the Sardegna Rally Raid. The result rewards the aces of the specialty at the end of an exceptionally intense marathon. Difficult tracks, changeable weather, demanding navigation through the uneven terrain, constant changes in pace, and a tremendous expenditure of mental and physical energy. Jacopo Cerutti, Aprilia Racing GCorse, brings the official Italian factory to the top step of the Motorcycle Podium. Cerutti beat Andrea Gava, Kove, and Paolo Lucci, Husqvarna Solarys. They are the protagonists of the “test” desired by the World Championship Promoter for the World Championship in Paradise.
And so it was with the Car Crews. The Slovakian crew, composed of Martin Benko and Marek Sykora, in a Taurus T3 Max, won, narrowly beating Cristina Giampaoli Zonca, the “Cristine GZ,” the blonde image of the discipline, paired with the highly experienced navigator Pablo Moreno, in an SSV Polaris RZR Pro. Third place went to Italians Ermanno Manfron and Michele Vianello, in a Can Am Maverick X3. Unfortunately, Alessandro and Marco Trivini Bellini, who had won the second round of the Italian Cross Country Championship on Saturday in the “matrioshka” of events that is the Sardegna Rally Raid, were forced to withdraw from the Grand Finale.
It’s not over, the Sardegna Rally Raid also hosted the two circuits of the Italian Motorally and the Raid TT. Two separate days for the former, three days for the latter. In any case, a common dominator: Pietro Degiacomi, KTM Africa Dream, the reigning champion having won the “zero” edition of the Sardegna Rally Raid last year, won the Motorally Day 1, beating Davide Soreca, Bimota, and his brother Paolo Degiacomi, GasGas. Motorally Day 2: Tommaso Montanari rebounded, beating Matteo Capuzzo, a Husqvarna Solarys double, and Pietro Degiacomi. The highly interesting class of modern and evocative twin-cylinder bikes also split. The giant from Lumezzane, Alessandro Botturi, Yamaha, won the first day, and the Sardinian stage of the Raid TT, Thomas Marini, Aprilia, won the second day of the Motorally.
The Sardegna Rally Raid is the unprecedented organizational achievement of a winning alliance on the island: the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, the Automobile Club, the FoReSTAS Agency, the human and strategic forces of AC Sassari, and the Moto Club Insolita Sardegna. It would not otherwise have been possible to create such an unprecedented event. 5 Rallies in 1. The Candidate Event test for the World Rally Raid Championship, which will arrive here next year, the European Baja for Motorcycles and Cars, the Italian Cross Country for Cars, the National Motorally and Raid TT Championships. Two distinct routes designed by two champions, Tiziano Siviero and Antonio Scanu, different control and event management circuits, and dual dedicated medical and safety infrastructures. Sardinia has given so much; Olbia has divided its time between the competitive event and the magic of San Simplicio; the Territory has blessed something that 500 participants will take home and share around the world. Believe me… it’s incredible. And yet it happened.
I note: even the winners’ trophy bears witness to this “alliance”: not traditional iron and cups, but Sardinian ceramics, which also bear the signature and image of the island throughout the world. I ask Giulio Pes of San Vittorio, the deus ex machina of the event, for a few words that sum up, if possible, the enormous effort and the extraordinary reward of the result.
Giulio Pes Di San Vittorio: “The Sardegna Rally Raid is a major undertaking by AC Sassari, the Automobile Club of Italy, and the Region of Sardinia. Special thanks to the hospitality of the Municipality of Olbia, which enthusiastically welcomed the four-day event. The sporting result is significant, but even more important is the work done to secure our Rally’s bid for the World Championship. We are confident about the future. We believe we’ve done a good job, thanks in any case to the extraordinary commitment of everyone, and we’re working towards the 2027 edition with the goal of realizing our World Championship dream.”
Molo Brin, Olbia’s waterfront, is slowly, reluctantly emptying. Everyone’s heart is filled with the desire to stay, because Sardinia never ends, and to return next year to line up for the start of the Sardinia Rally Raid World Championship.
© Images Sardegna Rally Raid, Jiri Simecek, R. Sant
