Born in 1982 thanks to the passion of a group of Turinese managers, METECO CORSE has been able in a short time to become a top-team engaging itself in many important competitions with good results, revealing as the only alternative to the greatest Italian teams of the years '80: the JOLLY CLUB in Milan and the GRIFONE in Genoa.
This escalation has been possible thanks to a different management of the crews in comparison to all the other small teams, mainly based on the assistances to its affiliates. METECO, has always tryed, through the harmony of a group of prepared technicians, to operate on every single crew of a Rally, giving a service that goes from the registration to the competitions to the search of the car to rent, to the time service the special stages and, above all, to the contact with the sponsors, fundamental thing for a good participation to a race.
This difference in conceiving the competitions logistics has born from the fact that each driver usually raced with a car to rental. So the mechanical assistance was furnished from the tuner, expert of the engine and of the mechanics, while all the other details were charged to the team. So METECO was a kind of "official" race team, even if it has never been at the level of the big teams, not for incapability, but intentionally. To be at the same level of the JOLLY CLUB or of the GRIFONE, they would have to have big budgets while the METECO was composed essentially from a group of impassioned that, having other jobs, would not have had the time for a full-time activity. However these things are secondary if we think about the seriousness and the engagement profuse in years of races.
The first important results arrive to the METECO in 1983. The ground of battle was limited to Piedmontese races, theater however of great challenges with other teams such as the CHIERI CORSE or the TRE LAGHI. And it is really a METECO CORSE driver to open the Italy Cup - zone One of the 1983 season with a success. His name is JOSI BARBERO and the car, of course, a LANCIA RALLY 037 - VOLTA. Other drivers with good cars have raced the Piedmontese roads. Among the most important names we remember GIANNI GIORDANO, with a FERRARI 308 GTB ex TOGNANA and " SPEEDY ": PERAZIO with the RENAULT 5 TURBO. For them and for others a well organized team, made of group of friends, but seriously prepared above all about the assistances. Certainly two vans and two fast cars were not at the level of the official LANCIA assistances, but however enough to guarantee to the drivers to be always at the top, under the direction of the president FRANCO MINETTI and of the coordinators CHIARAMELLO and NURISSO. This all at the beginning of the sport activity.
In 1984 the METECO Corse disputes a protagonist season with the conquest of the Italy Cup - Zone One lost the preceding year. This thanks to the strong and determined driver GIANNI CAPELLINO from CALLIANETTO, assisted by a good co-driver, GUALTIERO FURIA and both on board of a "super" LANCIA RALLY 037 prepared by the tireless GIUSEPPE VOLTA. The couple from Asti, in the lucky season, will win only the RALLY of VESIME, but thanks to the positionings gotten at the 111 MINUTI (2nd place end), at the RALLY DOC (5th place end) and at the CARMAGNOLA (3rd place end) will get the final success in a contened match, in which other METECO drivers as BARBERO, SERENA, BELTRANDI and ROSSELLI have not remained inert, on board of LANCIA RALLY 037.
The following season repeats at the top for the Turinese team. We are in 1985 and the LANCIA RALLY 037, although by now few competitive in the World Championship races, becomes an unbeatable car in the national competitions. The METECO drivers are conscious of this and, for all of them, during the championship there will be moments of glory, showing in this way the real power of a team built few years before from a group of friends. The RALLY TEAM 971, opening competition, ends with an historiacal triple win: first place end to CAPELLINO, second place end to BELTRANDI and third place end to SERENA. For these three strong drivers will arrive other satisfactions with those LANCIA 037 that, under the care of the "Wizard" VOLTA find again strength and energy. CAPELLINO will still win in LA SPEZIA, VESIME, at 111 MINUTI and at the BRICHET while the companion BELTRANDI will repeat in CARMAGNOLA and at the rally DOC. A third driver must be finally remembered and his name is ROBERTO ROSSELLI. This ABARTH tester is a depth expert of the 037 secrets and when he wears overall and helmet to the adversaries remain only the crumbs to pick up.
Despite all these victories, none of them will decorate himself of a tricolor title, because of an absurd and unfair rule that doesn't admit the group B cars in the calculation of the final score.
METECO Corse in these years becomes a great reality of the national rallies. Its drivers have often found on their roads the seed-professionals of the JOLLY CLUB and of the GRIFONE, official teams, but they have rarely cut a poor figure. GIANNI CAPELLINO and PIERINO BELTRANDI, the most representative drivers, have been able to show to the impassioned numbers of high class becoming often point of reference for the adversaries. The 1986 season is a photocopy of the precedent one with CAPELLINO first at the TEAM 971, at the CANELLI, at the VINI and second at the CITTA' DI TORINO, immediately after GIANFRANCO CUNICO by now full-time professional driver and with BELTRANDI on the highest step of the podium in DIANO MARINA, in CARMAGNOLA, at the BORMIDA, at the VALLI IMPERIESI and at the GRAPPOLO.
1987 is the last year of the group B cars. The tragic events happened in the World Championship influenced also the Italian Championship, therefore from 1987 the spectacular rear wheel drive cars, that so much thrilled thousand of impassioned, will leave place to the less performing cars of group A/N. The METECO Corse, despite of this, wants to repeat the good episodes of the precedent years and the facts give them still reason. GIANNI CAPELLINO, become by now mature, will still succeed in great enterprises consecrating himself to the history as one of the stronger LANCIA 037 drivers. He will be still first at the TEAM 971, at the CANELLI and at the VINI (like the precedent year), in VESIME and at the GRAPPOLO for a total dominion in the Piedmontese rallies. The same thing will be for PIERNO BELTRANDI, from Saluzzo, winning in CARMAGNOLA and LIMONE PIEMONTE, in a rally rich in sensations and won before the official drivers LIATTI and TABATON (GRIFONE) and RAYNERY (JOLLY CLUB). But this is not all. We don't want to forget who has made the METECO Corse unbeatable in the era of group B cars, enriching the victories carnet in little known competitions, but always fought up to the last kilometer. Among them we note LAMPO, BAREL, BERTONE, PIOMBANTI, CAPPELLI, BUSSENI and BETTANIN, all drivers of great experience and able to honor up to the end that extraordinary rally car called LANCIA 037.
The following years, also without the cars "monstre", still see the METECO CORSE on the breach. This thanks to a constant engagement and to a not common seriousness and experience. The new rally cars as the LANCIA DELTA 16V, the Ford SIERRA and the BMW M3 don't certainly give the same feelings of a LANCIA 037 or of a DELTA S4, but they are equally able to impassion the spectators along the special stages. This way, in 1987 BUBE BOVERO, Turinese driver, with a FORD SIERRA COSWORTH, emulating the ex-team-companions, obtains the title of group N in the first zone, opening a long series of successes that has enriched the prestige of METECO CORSE. Impossible to tell all the histories of thousand battles along the roads of the peninsula. Many drivers, in the following decade, have raced and won, each one with a different car but everybody under an only flag.
Today rallies have changed. Rules have changed, drivers, tuners and teams have changed. METECO Corse is present only at the races with some crew, but we are by now distant from what they have been able to do in the years '80. And it is so that we want to remember the Turinese team, in the most beautiful moments of his existence when his drivers, with the LANCIA 037, won in every competition and on every ground challenging each other in battles that we can see by now only in the memories albums.
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