This week end, it is time for Finale of the French Cup. Hold in Oyonnax (Ain, Rhône Alpes, small city known for his rugby club, close to Switzerland and Genève). Last finale in east part of France for a while I hope
As next year will be in La Rochelle (West, rugby city too
), and 2015 is between North and Corsica.
So 6 S2000 are at the start. In fact 5 + 1 RRC. The car renting by
Ludovic Gherardi, the local of the finale, as he is living on a stage ... he made all to secure this victory : subscribing to a small comity (Champagne - Ardennes) in order to secure easy qualification with a small number of rally and renting the most powerfull car he can : a Fiesta RRC, from an Irish team (Keltech Motorsport).
He has no really contenders, except maybe other local
Jérôme Chavanne. With a 207 S2000, renting from BDS Racing (ex Delta Racing). He finished 6th on Mont Blanc with it, but it will be hard to fight against the RRC ...
Other top contender is
Michel Giraldo with an old 306 Maxi. The 306 Maxi will live its last final next year. Here Giraldo hopes to finish on podium ... as he won 8 events with it this year !
4 other S2000 are here in Oyonnax : first for corsican driver
Paul Alerini, codrived by Cyril Audirac (winner of 208 Cup in Antibes). Quite surprisingly he is for the moment at ease on stages, as Normandy driver
Romain Martel. This young guy drove all around the France to learn experience, and prepared the final going in Mont Blanc and Suran (part of Swiss champ, even if it's run in France). If these two rallies were difficult for him, things have been happening quite well for him, as he is easily leading the other 207 S2000 coming from Normandy, the car of
Sébastien Alemany. First time here, and lot of difficulties for him, as roads are really different from what he knows.
Last S2000 is the 207 of
Jean-Luc Roche, father of Pierre. he lost lot of times, and the final will be difficult for him ...
For the rest, we have a lot of good guys, coming from all around the France. We can see good battle in F2/14, where Auvergne's Thomas Badel is leading local Raphaël Michaud. S1600 driver Patrick Magnou is doing well, as usual, whereas in N4 Mickaël Lobry is trying to break Romain Salinas (winner of Twingo R2 Trophy 2012) and David Mollas.
In R, the surprise is coming from Mickaël Crepy, leading with his C2 R2. Julien Brunero, Pascal Berard and Damien Dorseuil (this one from la Réunion) are trying to catch him with Clio R3.
And in GT, Murat Dogral take a small advantage on Jean Pascal Besson.
You can find leading entries (and later full entry list) here :
http://www.ewrc-results.com/startlist.p ... onnax-2013
And classification after day 1 :
http://www.ffsa.org/res_rallye.php?if=C ... typeCoupe=
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