Flavio Guglielmini's Fatal Crash @ Rally Bulgaria 2009 (Aftermath)
- 8 months ago
Co-driver to Brian Lavio of Switzerland, Flavio Guglielmini lost his life in an accident which happened during the Rally of Bulgaria, on Sunday, 19 July 2009 morning.
On the 23.68-kilometer seventh stage "Sestrimo" of the Rally of Bulgaria, which was the fifth round of the 2009 European Rally Championship, Brian Lavio lost control of his Team Brain Damaged-entered Peugeot 207 S2000. The car went off the road and crashed hard into a tree, on passenger side door. The Italian co-driver Flavio Guglielmini was killed almost instantly, Lavio was severely injured, being taken by ambulance to Velingrad hospital.
After the accident the stage was immediately stopped and several hours later the event was abandoned. Only a few competitors started the ninth special stage "Lyubnitsa" and refused to compete, driving through the stage at slow speed. The other cars remained in the park of attendance. The organizers decided to stop the rally that was cancelled at the end of that special stage. Giandomenico Basso-Mitia Dotta in a Fiat Punto Abarth S2000 entered by Team D’Ambra, who at the moment were leading the rally, were declared the winners. Ironically, Flavio Guglielmini was drafted in as co-driver to Giandomenico Basso from 1999 to 2003.
Flavio Guglielmini was an experienced rally navigator from Marina di Pietrasanta, province of Lucca, Italy. He started his professional career in the late 1990s making more than 120 rally starts, in the Italian, European and in the World rally championships. He attended Carlo Cassina's rally-school and later he worked as teacher at the Subaru Italia and BMW Italia racing schools. Amongst the drivers guided by Guglielmini were rising stars as Denis Colombini, Matteo Gamba and great Italian rally drivers, such as Alex Fiorio, Gianluca Vita, Emanuele Dati, Giandomenico Basso and Andrea Aghini, with which he finished seventh in the Rally San Crispino in a Group N Subaru Impreza, just one week before his death. The 2009 Rally of Bulgaria was his first start as Brian Lavio's co-driver. In the original entry-list of the rally, Lavio had his usual co-driver Luca Parodi who was forced to give up due to sudden job problems, and the team proposed Flavio Guglielmini as his replacement.
One year after his death, a marble monument was erected in memory of Flavio Guglielmini, just at the place of accident along the Sestrimo road. It was manufactured by the Italian sculptor Massimo Lippi.
R.I.P
On the 23.68-kilometer seventh stage "Sestrimo" of the Rally of Bulgaria, which was the fifth round of the 2009 European Rally Championship, Brian Lavio lost control of his Team Brain Damaged-entered Peugeot 207 S2000. The car went off the road and crashed hard into a tree, on passenger side door. The Italian co-driver Flavio Guglielmini was killed almost instantly, Lavio was severely injured, being taken by ambulance to Velingrad hospital.
After the accident the stage was immediately stopped and several hours later the event was abandoned. Only a few competitors started the ninth special stage "Lyubnitsa" and refused to compete, driving through the stage at slow speed. The other cars remained in the park of attendance. The organizers decided to stop the rally that was cancelled at the end of that special stage. Giandomenico Basso-Mitia Dotta in a Fiat Punto Abarth S2000 entered by Team D’Ambra, who at the moment were leading the rally, were declared the winners. Ironically, Flavio Guglielmini was drafted in as co-driver to Giandomenico Basso from 1999 to 2003.
Flavio Guglielmini was an experienced rally navigator from Marina di Pietrasanta, province of Lucca, Italy. He started his professional career in the late 1990s making more than 120 rally starts, in the Italian, European and in the World rally championships. He attended Carlo Cassina's rally-school and later he worked as teacher at the Subaru Italia and BMW Italia racing schools. Amongst the drivers guided by Guglielmini were rising stars as Denis Colombini, Matteo Gamba and great Italian rally drivers, such as Alex Fiorio, Gianluca Vita, Emanuele Dati, Giandomenico Basso and Andrea Aghini, with which he finished seventh in the Rally San Crispino in a Group N Subaru Impreza, just one week before his death. The 2009 Rally of Bulgaria was his first start as Brian Lavio's co-driver. In the original entry-list of the rally, Lavio had his usual co-driver Luca Parodi who was forced to give up due to sudden job problems, and the team proposed Flavio Guglielmini as his replacement.
One year after his death, a marble monument was erected in memory of Flavio Guglielmini, just at the place of accident along the Sestrimo road. It was manufactured by the Italian sculptor Massimo Lippi.
R.I.P