Rallylegend

San Marino is a republic of 61 square kilometres draped over Monte Titano, a limestone ridge rising out of the hills behind Rimini. For most of the year its roads carry tourists up to the three towers. For four days in October they carry flat-out rally cars, and the entire country effectively becomes a special stage.

The 2026 edition runs from 8 to 11 October and is the 24th. Two things define it: the fortieth anniversary of Group B's final competitive season, and the return of the Memorial Bettega, the head-to-head duel format made famous at the Bologna Motor Show, revived here on an adapted version of "The Legend" stage on Sunday. The organisers have also redrawn the stage layout to spread the crowds, a response to the 110,000 spectators the event drew in 2025.

More than 200 crews start, split into WRC, Classics and Historics fields, and the drivers who made the sport's history walk the paddock village without minders. Night stages run through the streets below the fortress walls. There is no other event where a Delta S4 passes within arm's length and its driver signs your programme twenty minutes later, and the organisers know it.

Come in along the Adriatic coast and leave the autostrada at Rimini Nord, then take the Marecchia valley road inland past Verucchio and San Leo before cutting across to the SS72 climb into the republic. The final ascent switchbacks up the mountain the same way the rally cars do, minus the pace notes