News from France

[EightGear]

Incredible. And people still wonder why France produces so many good drivers.

uploadfromtaptalk1427460045729.jpg

[vino_93]

Easy lead for Loeb in Epernay, but interesting fight for the other places :
1 Sébastien Loeb (DS3 WRC)
2 Quentin Giordano (DS3 R5) 49"
3 Laurent Viana (DS3 WRC) 1'09
4 Dominique Rebout (207 S2000) 1'17
5 Jérôme Galpin (207 S2000) 1'25
6 Mickaël Reydellet (207 S2000) 1'26
7 Eric Cunin (Fabia WRC) 1'26
8 Laurent Bayard (Corolla WRC) 1'30
9 José Barbara (Mini WRC) 1'33
10 Teddy Blanc-Garin (Lancer IX) 1'46
11 Raphaël Bouchy (207 S2000) 1'49
12 Armando Pereira (C4 WRC) 1'52
13 Nicolas Grosjean (106 S16) 1'56
14 Jean-Sébastien Vigion (Clio R3T) 1'58
15 Alain Vauthier (206 WRC) 1'59
...
Gilbert is only 22th, due to some troubles.
Today there will be more km to do, we will see more clearly who will well perform.

[tommeke_B]

So Loeb (who else) won in Epernay. Belgian Eric Cunin finished second with his Fabia WRC, after a nice fight with Quentin Giordano (DS3 R5).

1. Loeb
2. Cunin +4'46"6
3. Giordano +4'54"9
4. Viana (DS3 WRC) +5'24"9
5. Rebout (207 S2000) +5'27"4
6. Galpin (207 S2000) +6'20"3
7. Barbara (Mini WRC) +7'50"3
8. Blanc-Garin (Evo 9) +8'43"5
9. Saint-Requier (207 S2000) +8'56"9
10. Vigion (Clio R3T) +9'09"3
11. Gilbert (DS3 R3T) +9'12"5

Nice pic of Gilbert pushing it to the limit. He lost a lot of time on friday, today he was much quicker than Vigion.

Also oon photos and videos you can see something that makes this rally quite strange and interesting. The roads are mostly between the wineyards, and they are shaped like gutters to drain the water, so the edges of the road are always higher.

Giordano having a little off, and he turns it into an advantage. In WRC this would be a time penalty for sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKLLVajC3uQ

[nafpaktos]

These kind of roads i wonder what they can cause in case of rain.

[tommeke_B]

Video from Gilbert, same place as the photo...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFF3nQM9D4I

[vino_93]

These kind of roads i wonder what they can cause in case of rain.

It's incredible when it's raining. It's really slippery.
The main roads used are concrete, so the surface is quite bad too.

But as you can see on this video at some moments, water is going in the middle of the road, but causes no problem :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1qdR_hmYNg

[dimviii]

Loeb incar ss13.Plenty of 6th gear turns.
https://youtu.be/g2QlRROr0b0

[SpeedEstRacing]

my vidéo of rally epernay - vins de champagne 2015: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbHw_mKiFYQ

[dimviii]

[vino_93]

French cup week end :
Rallye National Epernay – Vins de Champagne : opening round of the D2 championship. It’s in Champagne, south of Reims.
For this opening round, D2 championship worked quite well, with a lot of gentlemen drivers from North / East of France + some of the south (as Fabre). Some good young guys too, like Reydellet. Four top guns starting : Loeb, of course. Giordano (WRC2), Gilbert (WRC3) and Vigion (Clio Cup). Vigion will be the only one we will see again here, because Clio Cup is based on D2 championship. In total, there was 9 WRC, 9 S2000 and 1 R5 (which will be the only cars able to fight for the title). A good field, even if it was of course gentlemen for most of them. But that’s the goal of a second division championship …
So for the race, not a lot of suspense. Loeb easily won. But there was a quite interesting fight for the podium spot. The Belgian Cunin won this battle, in front of Giordano and Viana. Viana is well known in the central Europe, where he drove a lot. Here, he is more known to have been a correct cup driver in the end of 90’, beginning of 00’. Dominique Rebout, 5th, is the fastest S2000 driver, beating Galpin, who was a top gun in the early 00’. Teddy Blanc-Garin, 8th, is the winning N4 driver. 10th and winner in 2WD is Vigion. He reached an easy win in Clio Cup Trophy, and took advantage of Gilbert mistakes.

1 Sébastien Loeb (DS3 WRC)
2 Eric Cunin (BEL, Fabia WRC) 4’46
3 Quentin Giordano (DS3 R5) 4’54
4 Laurent Viana (DS3 WRC) 5’24
5 Dominique Rebout (207 S2000) 5’27
6 Jérôme Galpin (207 S2000) 6’20
7 José Barbara (Mini WRC) 7’50
8 Teddy Blanc-Garin (Lancer IX) 8’43
9 Yves Saint-Requier (207 S2000) 8’56
10 Jean-Sébastien Vigion (Clio IV R3T) 9’09
…

Rallye National du Pays Coutançais : Here we are in Normandy, close to Coutances, more or less facing Jersey.
There was of field of 71 cars, with two clear leaders : Romain Martel and Sébastien Alemany, with 207 S2000. But both of them had to retire whereas they were fighting for victory. So they let the outsiders taking the victory. First of them was Arnaud Gautier, former French cup winner, but now running with Clio R3. He beat David Deslandes Clio S1600, and Michel Dutot Lancer Evo VIII.

1 Arnaud Gautier (Clio R3)
2 David Deslandes (Clio S1600) 10”
3 Michel Dutot (Lancer Evo VIII) 16”
4 Yannick Roussel (Porsche 997 GT3) 31”
5 Eddie Lemaitre (Clio R3) 32 »
…

Rallye National du Val d’Ance : run in Auvergne, not so far from Saint-Etienne (Rhône Alpes). The field was correct, not so far from 100, even if we could expected more entries from Rhône Alpes. The main driver was Mickaël Ruard, starting with a 306 Maxi. He took an easy victory, in front of Berard.

1 Mickaël Ruard (306 Maxi)
2 Pascal Berard (Clio R3) 1’05
3 Eric Peyrache (BMW 318 Compact) 1’22
4 David Fraisse (Clio R3) 1’41
5 Gérard Delorme (306 F2000) 2’45
…

Rallye Régional des Côtes de Garonne : here we are in Aquitaine, south of Bordeaux. 74 drivers, with Cédric Orillac Saxo Kit Car, Frédéric Purrey Lancer Evo IX, and Lionel Jacob 206 S16 as favorites. Orillac retired in first stage, and let Purrey taken the advantage on Jacob.
1 Frédéric Purrey (Lancer Evo IX)
2 Lionel Jacob (206 S16) 21”
3 Florian Cordillot (Clio R3) 59”
4 Antoine Hommeau (Clio Ragnotti) 1’18
5 Paul Paillé (206 S16) 1’19
…

Rallye Régional de Franche Comté : Here we are close to Belfort, not so ar from Switzerland.
The field wasn’t so impressive, with only 64 starters. There was 5 swiss crews there, which is newly authorized in Régional rallies. But the top crews were French, as Philippe Grosjean starting with his Mégane Maxi, or Olivier Courtois, starting with a new Clio R3. Finally, it was a surprising winner, with the first overall victory of Patrick Cholley, with an old BMW M3.
1 Patrick Cholley (BMW M3)
2 Pierre-Emil Duchene (Clio Ragnotti) 11”
3 Olivier Courtois (Clio IV R3) 12”
4 David Lamarche (Clio Ragnotti) 21”
5 Damien Martin (BMW M3) 28”
…

Rallye Orange-Ventoux Classic : it’s a recent, but famous historic competition, run in the are of the Mont Ventoux, the famous mountain in Provence.
Some good starters were there, as François Delecour (Quattro), Philippe Gache (RX-7), Paul Chieusse (R5T), … After a great fight, Gache won by a few seconds on Delecour :

1 Philippe Gache (Mazda RX-7)
2 François Delecour (Audi Quattro) 10 »
3 Maurice Dumas (911 SC) 29 »
4 Paul Chieusse (R5 Turbo) 1’51
5 Jean-Marc Thome (911 SC) 2’26
…