The sun was out today in the hills of Northern Spain for the second and final day of the Rally de Asturias Historico. On the schedule of leg 2 for the competitors were six stages and a total of 81km. ‘Zippo’ and Nicola Arena once again ended at the top of the overall classification with their Category 3 Audi quattro.

The Italian crew finished 4m42.9s ahead of Antonio Sainz and Carlos Riesgo in the Subaru Legacy Turbo 4WD after the Spanish duo moved ahead of Mats Myrsell and Esko Junttila in the Category 4 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4x4 to secure the Category 4 win. Myrsell and Junttila finished third amongst the EHRC contenders overall and second in Category 4, followed by Valter Jensen and Erik Pedersen in the BMW M3. 

Second in Category 3 behind the Audi quattro was the Porsche 911 SC of Fernando Dameto Fortuny and Salvador Belzunces, 16m57.4 behind the winning car and 39.1 seconds ahead of Sir Andrew McAlpine and Andy Bull in the Ferrari 308 GTB Michelotto. 

Britain’s Will Graham and his Irish Co-Driver James O’Brien finished at the head of Category 2 in the Ford Escort RS 1800, which was Graham’s second win in a row.   Overnight leaders Paolo Pasutti and Giovanni Campeis had a technical issue early in the day, which dropped the Italian duo down the order but, after repairs, they fought back to finish the day third in Category 2 behind Jesus Diez Villarroel and Alejandro Cid Alvarès in the no7 Ford Escort RS 2000. 

Category 1 was won by Championship leaders Ernie and Karen Graham in the Ford Escort Twin Cam, the British couple posting the fastest Category 1 times on all six stages in the dry conditions. It is the 6th win of the season for the British duo that ended the day 2m17.0 ahead of the overnight leader James Potter and Caroline McCormack with the Ford Cortina 1600 GT. 

Next on the EHRC calendar it the XXXIV Rally Elba Storico that will take place from the 22nd to 24thSeptember.