30-year Celebration

Two-hundred guests attended the 30-year celebration party for Motoring Club, the Italian preparation rally team which helped Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala in the early years of their rally career.

Held last Friday night (December 21st), the Ford drivers were the star guests of the evening.

Run by Gabriele Favero, the club began their activities in the late seventies, and in the last thirty years the team has worked closely with world rally legends like Juha Kankkunen, Walter Rohrl, Timo Makinen, Markku Alen and Henri Toivonen.

Hirvonen was fiercely supportive of his old Mentor who continues to help young drivers in the sport. "Jari-Matti and I would never miss a function that Gabriele arranges. It is the least we could do after all the help he has given people like us. No trouble was too much for us."

On the following Sunday, a single-venue rally was held nearby with over a hundred entries, with Latvala driving his family's own Toyota Corolla World Rally Car and Hirvonen driving a zero car.