We’re about 48 hours out from the scheduled January 5 premiere of Race for Glory, the Lionsgate film that endeavors to depict the tale of Lancia versus Audi in the World Rally Championship series. This means more and more details are dropping, including a few photos from Lionsgate that reveal more key players Audi enthusiasts are sure to recognize.
Set in 1983, the story is told from the perspective of Lancia and most notably their team director Cesare Fiorio played by Ricardo Scamarcio. With Audi Sport and their dominating quattros set as chief antagonist, Fiorio ambitiously moves to launch its Lancia 037 rear-wheel drive Group B racecar. He also sets out to hire reigning world champion Walter Röhrl to take it to Audi after the German narrowly won the driver’s championship the year before in his largely outclassed Opel Ascona.
From all looks of it, the story is mainly focused on Fiorio and his counterpart at Audi, Roland Gumpert who is played by Daniel Brühl. From publicity photos released early on, we’d been able to learn that Hannu Mikkola will be seen in the film. IMDB later revealed (by process of elimination), that Michèle Mouton will also be played by Esther Garrel. Now, with a few more publicity shots, we can see Garrel’s Mouton clearly, along with what appears to be another actress playing her co-driver Fabrizia Pons.
It’s unclear to what degree these well-known Audi personalities will be integrated into the story, but they certainly played a pivotal part in the actual 1983 season, and Mouton ran an incredibly engaging championship race with Röhrl where he narrowly won the title in the season leading into 1983.
Race for Glory debuts this Friday and will be distributed by Lionsgate.
Gallery below. Photos courtesy of Lionsgate.
