Ecomotori CNG Team Triumphs at Monte Carlo Rally
Two races and two wins: the Ecomotori Racing Team and its Cavagna-Bigas CNG-converted Fiat 500 Eco-Abarth have started the 2015 racing season in perfect fashion. Beginning the 2015 racing season by taking out the Eco Snow Trophy in Northen Italy, the rookie pair – made up of the Lombard Nicola Ventura and the Tuscan Guido Guerrini – have now won the prestigious Monte Carlo Rally: no easy feat, as they were one of the 87 crews competing in the most challenging race on the FIA Alternative Energies Cup calendar.
The Italian team triumphed after seven special stages spread out over a three-day event that is more than 1,000 kms long. Ninth place after the first three tests, Ventura and Guerrini rose up the ranks, and by the fifth stage they had already taken the lead. The last two stages left no doubt about their first place finish, as they put half a minute between them and the defending World Champion Massimo Liverani, who came in second.
The Ecomotori Team also achieved noteworthy results in the energy consumption classification, where Ventura and Guerrini came in tenth place. Only nine hybrid and electric cars ranked ahead of them, which is remarkable considering that those cars are assigned extremely advantageous coefficients by the race organizers when compared to vehicles powered by gaseous or liquid fuels. “The performance of the CNG Cavagna-Bigas System was outstanding,” Guido Guerrini emphasized during the press conference held at the Fairmont Hotel in Monte Carlo, adding that “a victory here is really beyond compare: winning in the Principality is a dream that any motor racing lover nurtures since childhood. ”
Another reason the driver Nicola Ventura was so satisfied was due to the fact that “Monte Carlo was one of the few victories that were missing from the Ecomotori Racing Team’s brilliant run of achievements over the years.” Regarding the positive results in the energy consumption classification, Ventura stressed “the important technical work carried out by Bigas on the eve of the race, allowed the CNG-converted Fiat 500 Eco-Abarth to have a great performance on the difficult climbs that lead up to the legendary hills like the Col de Turini, while at the same time maintaining a really low level of energy consumption.”
In a press release launched after the race, the Ecomotori Racing Team highlighted how this victory was the victory of a close-knit team that could count on the tactical support and real-time telemetry of Emanuele Calchetti, Isabelle Barciulli and Monica Porta.
With this extraordinary victory, Nicola Ventura, Guido Guerrini and the CNG-converted Fiat 500 Eco-Abarth have increased their lead in the Drivers, Co-drivers and Manufacturers categories of the World Championship for Alternative Energies.
The next date is set for mid-May, when the World Championship will be held at the San Marino-Vatican City Ecorally. It will be yet another interesting test for this global ecological motorcade, as it travels the roads from Monte Titano to the heart of Rome.
https://www.ngvglobal.com/ecomotori-cng-team-triumphs-at-monte-carlo-rally-0401
