Rouen-les-AFX: February 2022

It is always a pleasure to see an Alpine A110. This one crewed by Jean-Luc Roche and Alexandra Robin finished seventh overall on the rally and won its class.

The eighth running of the Rallye Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic was the fourth time it had included modern rally cars and qualified for 'La coupe de France des Rallyes 2022' (coefficient 3) as well as the regional league. Taking place over the last weekend of February it was run over three different stages (each taken four times) in a small area near Castillion-la-Bataille to the east of Bordeaux in the Gironde department of France. Total distance of the twelve special stages was just under 140km. As usual in France, these were tarmac stages.

I attended the first special stage on the Saturday, starting in Saint-Quentin-de-Caplong. I was in a field on the D18 near Pessac-sur-Dordogne. Surprisingly, there were very few of us and thus I had no problem getting good access for my photos.

Pre-rally favourires were Patrick Rouillard (Skoda Fabia R5) who won in 2019, plus Bruno Longepe (Volkswagen Polo R5) and Tony Cosson (Porsche 991 GT3). The bright and sunny but initially cold February weekend was to prove a good background for their battle, which for a time was very close.

My only disappointment from a photo opportunity point of view was that I was changing my lens when the rare Hommell Berlinette Echappement went by! Photos were taken using Canon 100-400mm and 17-55mm zoom lenses. After the first few competitors had gone by, I concentrated on trying to capture the speed of these rally cars.

All in all a lovely day that I enjoyed because of the sunshine, wonderful noise of these rally machine and pursuing my hobby of photographing fast cars. After I got home, i followed the rally on the media to see if the Porsche won.

As well as the modern rally cars included in this post, there were the VHC and VHRS rally cars as well, with excellent fields, and these will be covered in future posts.

The Skoda Fabia R5 of Patrick Rouillard and Cedric Gamboni won the first stage, seen here, by a clear margin and looked very fast. However, on the third stage he left the road and retired.

After the retirement of Rouillard, Bruno Longepe took up the battle with Tony Cosson. At the end of stage 6 and the first day, Bruno led the rally by a very small margin in this Volkswagen Polo R5. However, a poor showing on stage 9 meant that Bruno Longepe and Frédérique Lopez had to settle for an eventual second place and class win.

The winning Porsche 991 GT3 of Anthony Cosson and Florent Delpech. This cars sounds and looks amazing and was definitely one of my favourites.

Third place on the podium fell to Frédéric Gobin and Jean-Luc Fraigne in a Skoda Fabia R5.

Fourth place and winner of their FNat Group was Loic and Yann Larquey in this Mitsubishi Lancer EvoX.

Fifth place and winner of the R2 class was this Peugeot 208 crewed by Nicolas Radet and Bastien Le Queau.

The winner of the R3 class and sixth place overall fell to Aurélien Pion and Maeva Perrinaud in this Renault Clio.

This BMW Compact of Yannick Lacouture and Christophe Chavanneau was fast on ES1 and at that time led the RNat Group. They had finished second when the rally was last held in 2020.

In 24th place of the 64 starters and 34 finishers was this Peugeot 106 S16 of Marco and Aurélie Rodrigues Gaspar.

A Peugeot 106 SI driven by Nicolas Brasseur and Jeremie Chatard.

The Peugeot 306 S16 of Matthieu Hernandez and Théo Pawlak who finished 23rd overall and third in their N3 class.

Morgan and Emilien Cabaret finished 22nd overall in this Peugeot 206 RC and second in their A7 class.

Adding to the variety of cars was this Mercedes C180 crewed by Philippe and Marie-Pierre Pons.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost. However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

Another look at the winning Porsche 991 GT3. A rare car in French rallying, it has won before in Tony's hands at the Rallye des Jardins de Sologne in 2021. Previously, Tony had rallied a Skoda.

The Porsche 911 of Bourrier / Chaussoniere. They finished 27th.

My first motor sport event of the year was the third running of the Classic Val de Nuit, a regularity rally for classic cars. I attended the start of the rally at 17.30 on Saturday 12th February in the Place de la Breche in Niort, France. The forty six cars had all left on their 240 km journey through the Deux-Sèvres department by nightfall at 18.20. Well organized by l'ASA79 for the third time, quite a few spectators came to see the rally leave Niort and there were some beautiful cars for them to see and a good Master of Ceremonies giving a commentary to keep all informed.

The Podium Finishers

The winners were Lavigne/Stubbs in this VW Golf GTi.

Runners-up were Gardrat/Debraud in this Audi TT.

The Peugeot 205 GTi of Bonnet/Guillemin came third.

The Parking

The cars were all on display in the square for the public to see during late Saturday afternoon.

A Triumph Herald 1200 Coupe from the sixties. I learnt to drive in a Triumph Herald so always a favourite with me. This is one was the Coupe that had two seats and a fast back.

Another Triumph, a TR3. This one was probably the oldest car in the rally.

BMW 2002.

The non-finishers

A number of the more beautiful cars failed to finish the rally. I was amused when some other spectators asked me what the car below was. They seemed equally amused by my accent!