Based in Oleggio Castello in the province of Novara, near the enchanting Lake Maggiore, ŠKODA Rally Team Italia is the Italian arm of ŠKODA Motorsport. The team – which holds an official licence from the Czech manufacturer for its motorsport activities – is specialised in managing and preparing rally cars for competition.
Founded in February 2009 by Pierfrancesco Zanchi and Mario Fornaris, the company has achieved considerable success in rallying over the years both at international level.
Thanks to its Fabia Super 2000 project, ŠKODA – part of the Volkswagen Group – has distinguished itself for having created one of the most competitive rally cars in the S2000 category.
As well as playing an active role in the Italian rally arena, ŠKODA Rally Team Italia manages ŠKODA UK Motorsport's participation in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge and ŠKODA Rally Team Hungária's entry in its domestic championship.
2009 – From formation to the 2009 Italian Rally Championship (CIR)
Founded on February 24, 2009, ŠKODA Rally Team Italia (SRTI) was created by former driver Pierfrancesco Zanchi and technical expert Mario Fornaris with the aim of establishing a rally team specialised in managing and preparing ŠKODA rally cars for competition.
Located in Oleggio Castello near Lake Maggiore in the north of Italy, SRTI incorporates the heritage of the local Aimont Racing team, which had been the motorsport department of Subaru Italy up to 2009. Thanks to its close cooperation with Volkswagen Italia, Zanchi, who was one of the owners of Aimont, decided to found a new team with Fornaris, the man responsible for the technical aspects of the hugely successful ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000 project.
SRTI began its motorsport activities by taking part in the 2009 Italian Rally Championship (CIR) with a Fabia S2000 for Piero Longhi, a former Aimont driver. In the team's first season Longhi finished fourth in the final standings with an impressive victory on Rally di San Crispino, the first for the Fabia in the Italian series. To celebrate this outstanding result SKODA published on the Italian La Gazzetta dello Sport an image of the Fabia S2000 car completely splattered with mud and with the title: "Thank you for having mudded our brand" (16/07/2009). Before the start of the rally a similar picture had been published but this time with the headline: "Today we mud our brand".
By the end of the year the internal structure of the team had also been re-defined with Zanchi appointed team principal and Fornaris placed in charge of all the technical areas.
2010 – One team, four championships and five Fabia S2000
Having collected some very positive results in 2009, SRTI branched out into several other major competitions in 2010 including the World Rally Championship, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the Hungarian Rally Championship as well as continuing its participation in the CIR.
It proved a very successful albeit extremely busy year with the Italian team preparing and managing several Fabia S2000s for different private crews and providing technical support to ŠKODA's motorsport divisions in the UK and in Hungary.
Through an agreement with ŠKODA UK - the main importer of the Czech car manufacturer in Europe – SRTI prepared and managed the Fabia S2000 used in the IRC by the British crew of Guy Wilks and Phil Pugh who finished the season sixth overall. This was an important step for SRTI: by providing its technical knowhow and support to ŠKODA UK, SRTI helped to create ŠKODA UK Motorsport – the company's UK-based motorsport division - with Zanchi appointed team principal.
In the Hungarian championship, SRTI prepared and managed a Fabia S2000 car for local driver Norbert Herczig. As in the UK, SRTI played a key role in Hungary, providing technical support to the Czech manufacturer's local motorsport division: ŠKODA Rally Team Hungária.
Meanwhile in Italy, SRTI strengthened its partnership with Volkswagen Italia by fielding a two-car team in the CIR for the Czech crew of Jan Kopecký and Petr Starý, plus the all-Italian line-up of Marco Signor and Maurizio Barone. Kopecký and Starý finished third overall with Signor and Barone ninth in the final table. ŠKODA finished in the top three in the manufacturers' standings.
This was another important step for SRTI. From managing one car in the CIR in 2009, SRTI was now preparing two Fabia S2000s for use in the series 12 months later for two drivers with differing levels of experience. In Signor, SRTI had a rising talent it was able to nurture, while Kopecký – a factory ŠKODA driver – had vast knowledge of the Fabia S2000 and the sport in general through several years of international competition.
SRTI also competed on other international rallies in 2010 preparing Fabia S2000s for privateer drivers such as Poland's Michał Kościuszko, who impressed on selected outings in the Super 2000 World Rally Championship, and Norwegian youngster Andreas Mikkelsen, who shone on two world championship events with the team. In addition, SRTI tackled other events in France and Italy plus the end-of-season Bologna Motorshow.
2011 – With Mikkelsen in the TRT and IRC, Herczig in Hungary
At the end of 2010, Zanchi decided to focus on three main rally championships for the next season, withdrawing from the CIR to contest the Trofeo Rally Terra (TRT), the Italian Gravel Trophy with Mikkelsen, while also contesting the IRC and Hungarian championship.
As well as the TRT, Mikkelsen and co-driver Ola Fløene entered a full season in the IRC in a ŠKODA UK Motorsport Fabia S2000, while Herczig and co-driver Kálmán Benics continued to represent ŠKODA's Hungarian importer in its domestic series.
Mikkelsen and Fløene enjoyed a hugely successful season, clinching the TRT title under the ŠKODA Rally Team Italia banner before taking the IRC crown in a five-way showdown in Cyprus at the start of November. ŠKODA UK's efforts helped ŠKODA claim its second consecutive IRC manufacturers' championship. Herczig and Benics finished fifth in the Hungarian standings courtesy of one victory.
The 2011 season drew to a close with SRTI receiving the Casco Italia (Italian Helmet) during the traditional ceremony of the Caschi d'Oro (Golden Helmets): a prestigious prize presented by the Italian motorsport magazine Autosprint and awarded to the Italian team for representing the country abroad so successfully.