The inaugural press conference of the Sardegna Rally Raid highlighted that between the Event and the institutions there is a true communion of intent. This is demonstrated by the men who represent them, passionately involved.
The Sardegna Rally Raid 2026 has been officially presented: 500 km across three stages for 500 specialists. An event that blends adventure and motorsport, capable of involving institutions and organizers in a truly passionate occasion.
Abstract
Olbia’s mayor, Settimo Nizzi, highlights the bond between the race and the city, twinned with “Sa Festa Manna de Mesu Maju.” Regional councilor Stefano Cossu recalls how Sardinia has always been an ideal setting for rallies and rally-raids, and how this “alliance” is expressed through collaboration with ACI Sport.
Giulio Pes Di San Vittorio (President of AC Sassari) explains the event’s evolution, born from experience in the WRC and Extreme E, and from a once-courageous organizational initiative. Tiziano Siviero, former champion and rally designer, calls Sardinia “unavoidable” for its unique natural and environmental context.
Salvatore Piras (FoReSTAS) highlights the perfect coexistence between competition and environmental protection. Organizers reveal that entries for the Italian championship sold out in 39 minutes, with sixty left out.
The race starts on May 15 from Molo Brin, after technical checks on the 14th. Three stages of pure adventure in a unique setting, between sea and mountains.
Olbia, May 13, 2026. The Sardegna Rally Raid – 500 kilometers in three stages for 500 specialists, the aces of that discipline which more than any other “represents” the Adventure of origins evolved into Motorsport – moves and infects. You can clearly perceive this as the press conference in Olbia proceeds. One host and one guest after another, everyone sets aside that formal rigor which, let’s face it, tends to flatten convention, to find themselves together at the table of a shared passion.
Settimo Nizzi, mayor of Olbia, greets and thanks (though it is the S2R that owes most of the thanks) and explains how the lively and hyperactive maritime city of northeastern Sardinia is traditionally involved. These are the years of superb editions of the WRC World Championship, and now it is the Adventure of the Rally-Raid that aspires to become a round of the World Championship. Olbia has opened its arms to the event, and has twinned the Sardegna Rally Raid with the most traditional celebration of the city’s affection: Sa Festa Manna de Mesu Maju, the patron saint of the city and of Gallura. When mention is made of the Rally as a showcase for Sardinia in the world, it is implied that attention converges on those who represent the Island institutionally.
Thus Stefano Cossu, from the tourism department of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, is clear. Since always – meaning from the 1980s onward – Sardinia reveals itself as the ideal natural theater for the most representative and intense off-road events. The traditional Rally, expressed for over twenty years in the success of the WRC World Championship, and the Rally-Raid, now declined in the return to the original and fascinating formula of the sporting reunion of Bikes and Cars (and the Desert Elephants, the Trucks). Races born in Africa, lived in South America and Saudi Arabia, which find in Sardinia the meaning of a perfect translation into a different context, thanks to the collaboration between the Region and ACI Sport, in the localized sense of AC Sassari.
Which means calling upon Giulio Pes di San Vittorio, president of the Automobile Club Sassari, who is at once the courage, the initiative, and the realization of the Sardegna Rally Raid. Pes recalls how he entered this “branch” when the WRC arrived in Sardinia, and how he was involved in the complex realization of the Extreme E World Championship at Capo Teulada. These are experiences that have shaped his passion and grown the young talents of the Automobile Club Sassari task force, and which now come together “adult” and determined in the Organization of the Sardegna Rally Raid. Giulio Pes speaks more of others than of himself, and calls to the “podium” of the city council table Tiziano Siviero, the expert who designed and involved him in the realization of the S2R…
Tiziano Siviero, the World Rally Champion and ten-year designer of the Dakar in South America, who does not like to talk, prefers to “write” and pour his creativity into the tracks, into the Rally Raid route he imagined as “unavoidable” in Sardinia. The Event Director tells us about the beginnings, about the story that brought him to the bikes and cars that are protagonists of the persevering legend of desert marathons and, now, of the Island. About how Sardinia represents the uniqueness of an unbeatable natural and environmental context to stage a top-level competitive content on the stage of a truly unique theater.
Salvatore Piras, sole administrator of the FoReSTAS agency, lights an important moment of reflection. The Sardegna Rally Raid takes place mainly on the labyrinth and on the surveillance and care routes of the forest heritage of northern Sardinia. The institution not only does not hold back but, on the contrary, emphasizes how active the collaboration born on the tracks of the WRC is, now developed on the routes of the Sardegna Rally Race. It is a significant moment, in which it is noted that perfect coexistence is possible between a delicate environmental context and what, more gratuitously than objectively, is called a “threat.” This too is courage and passion.
Antonio Assirelli, Motorally coordinator of the Italian Motorcycling Federation, and Antonio Scanu, “track designer” of the Moto Club Insolita Sardegna, finally explain together the attractive force of the Rally Raid in Sardinia, and why in 39 minutes it was possible to open and close registrations for the Italian Championship round – a round number that is real because it is the admission ceiling that leaves out about sixty disappointed people forced to give up. It is thanks to the decades-long dedication to the cause created by the great “Federale,” and thanks to years of refinement of an impeccable motorcycle event. Certainly it is thanks to a place, to a sea and mountains, to traditions and culture that make life in Sardinia unique, fascinating, and desirable. Finally, an attempt is made to get Edoardo Di Lauro to talk about the route, but the Event Coordinator is “invulnerable” – it is secret information that competitors discover along the way on the notes of the Race Road Book, day by day. Di Lauro, however, summarizes and explains the logistical, organizational, and racing dynamics of a particularly complex and rewarding event.
But we have talked enough. From the 14th: checks, preliminary tests, registrations, and animation of the “bivouac” on Molo Brin. And from May 15th, it’s Sardegna Rally Raid: three stages of competition in Paradise until Sunday the 17th.
Thank You!
Sardegna Rally Raid Press Office
Piero Batini (pbatini@gmail.com)
Sardegna Rally Raid. FIA-FIM Rally-Raid World Championship Candidate
Auto: Campionato Italiano Cross Country e SSV
Moto: Campionati Italiani MotoRally e Raid-TT, Europeo Baja
Epicentro: Olbia
Organization:
Automobile Club Sassari and the support of Moto Club Insolita Sardegna
Con il sostegno dell’Automobile Club d’Italia e della Regione Autonoma della Sardegna
www.sardegnarallyraid.com
info@sardegnarallyraid.com
press@sardegnarallyraid.com
Sportity: S2R26FIA, S2R26FIME
