La Balade de Printemps du Bouchon de Pons 2022

 

A nice variety of about 50 cars, vans and campers gathered for the spring outing at Pons.

Organised by the team who run the "Bouchon de Pons" in the summer, this meeting of about fifty classic cars of at least 30 years age, arrived on Sunday morning 20th March in the centre of Pons at the foot of the Donjon.  Later they left for a run around the local Charente Maritime countryside and a picnic.   I hope you enjoy the pictures of these cars and the enthusiasts who give us all pleasure at these types of gatherings and on the road.   We certainly enjoyed meeting some of these enthusiasts (both French and English) and seeing their cars.  Always, of course a joy to come to the medieval city of Pons which is only a relatively short drive from where we live.

Amusement was generated by this Vespa 400 that was presented as if it was a clockwork toy!   These cars were of an Italian design but produced in France from 1957 to 1961.  With a 2 cylinder engine of just under 400cc it was not very powerful and just over 80kph was the top speed.  this one was a "barn find" a few years ago.

A variety Citroëns were present including a Traction Avant, a DS and a 2CV.

A well presented Citroën 2CV.

A rather more unusual convertible 2CV.

Citroën 2CV and trailer.  They must have had a big picnic to carry!

A Renault 8 Gordini.

Renault 4CV, a very popular car in France from the late forties until the early sixties.

A very nicely restored Renault Juvaquatra fougonette.

Matra-Simca Bagheera, a small engined French sports car from the seventies.

A Peugeot 203 Familiale from the fifties.  It featured three rows of seats.  The French had big families in those days!

1947 MG Midget TC.  A real beauty!

Another MG Midget, this one a TF from the mid-fifties.

Late forties Cadillac.

Ford Escort Mk1.

The Volkswagen brigade,.

The obligatory Mini.

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.

A little collage of the medieval city of Pons in France.

30ème Rallye National de la Vienne 2022 - Moderne

Christian and Nathalie Roulleaux in their Peugeot 206 Super 1600 on ES3.  They eventually hit mechanical issues that prevented them finishing.

The 2022 Rallye de la Vienne was the thirtieth running of the event and was a national tarmac rally event counting for 'La Coupe de France des Rallyes coefficient 3' and the local regional league championship of Nouvelle Aquitaine Nord.   There were 94 cars that started the rally and 67 that finished.  The rally was held over 12 special stages on Saturday 12th March 2022.  In total there were 132km of special stages for which an interesting and varied field of GT and touring cars assembled and many of them can be seen in action from the photos I took on ES1 and ES3.     There was a good battle for the lead of the rally between the R5 cars 1 (Hernandez) and 2 (Millet) with the GT3 Porsche of Anthony Cosson keeping them on their toes.  Also nice to see some young talent doing well on the rally such as Matteo Chatillon.

A couple of competitors were hurt on this rally when they crashed in to an empty house.  I wish them a fast recovery.

It was also good to see so many spectators at this rally, even if at times it made it difficult to get close to the action (I am an amateur photographer with no media pass, so I shoot from the public zones)..... but good to see you all there. good to to know that I am not the only one to enjoy rally cars.

The Citroën C2 of Romain Fouquet and Benoît Ducroix on ES3.  They retired with mechanical issues on ES9.

It may surprise some of my readers that local hero Simon Pagenaud won this rally back in 2014.  He of course went on to win the Indy Car series in 2016 and the Indy 500 in 2019.   He is quoted as saying that rallying is his favourite type of motorsport.  For Simon Pagenaud Indy Car pictures click here.

Sébastien and Delphine Gallard show us how to take a tight hairpin bend in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 with a big slide and opposite lock correction.  Very entertaining for the spectators.

For those interested, I took all of the photos (except of the drivers) on a Canon 7D Mk II DLSR and used the following lenses; 100-400mm zoom, 17-55mm zoom and 135mm F2.  The pictures with the particularly high quality and slightly blurry backgrounds were taken with the latter lens.  Where I was forced to be a long way way from the action I used the longer zoom and when very close to the action the shorter zoom.   Hopefully, you will enjoy seeing this selection of the rally cars and their drivers that take part in French rallies in my region.

For the VHC historic rally cars that competed on this rally, click here.

For the 2022 Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic Rally (Modern), click here.

Some of the cars that finished in the top fifty:

For a change, I have put the cars in reverse order.

In 49th position, the Citroën Saxo Kit Car of Daniel Pedeneau and Goulven Treguier.

In 45th position, The BMW 320i of Fabien Prevoteau and Charlotte Hivert.

In 35th position and lifting a rear wheel, the Peugeot 208 of Samuel Rollier and Emilie Perrinaud.

In 31st position, the Peugeot 207 RC of Nicolas Foulon and Frédéric Evin.

A wider angle view of the ES3 hairpin bend and the 29th placed Renault Clio RS of Denis and Alain Saulnier.

In 27th position, the Peugeot 206 RC of Alexandre Roux and Séverine Sarrazin.

In 26th position and winner of class FRC4/A6K, the Peugeot 206 of Sébatien Gourdon and Romain Metayer.

In 18th position, the Renault Megane of Jonathan Dubray and Christelle Garilliere.

In 16th position, the Hyundai i20 of Jonathan Orens and Franck Mercier.

In 14th position and lifting up a rear wheel, the Renault Clio III RS of Thierry Boisdron and Sandrine Caramigeas.  For Thierry it was his 22nd time of competing in the Rallye de la Vienne, which is more than anyone else.  He has had a podium finish in the past.

In 13th position, the Porsche 997 GT3 RS of Philippe Taffonneau and Julien Boulet.  Philippe won this rally in 2017 in a Porsche.

In 11th position and winner of class F214, the Renault Clio Ragnotti of Anthony Langlois and Eric Meudic.

In tenth position and winner of class R3, the Renault Clio RS of Dimitri Charles and Flavien Rateau.

In ninth position, the Porsche 997 of Alain Colin and Eric Daguze.

In seventh position and winner of Group FRC4, the Peugeot 208 of Matteo Chatillon and Maxence Cornuau.  Very good to see this young 20 year old local driver do so well in his first event this year having entered as a junior in various rallies over the last couple of years..  Maybe he will be a star of the future.

In sixth position, the Skoda Fabia of Fabien and Jérôme Despois.

In fifth position and winner of the French Rally Nat Group, the Mitsubishi Lancia Evo X of Michel and Sylvie Bourgeois.

In fourth position, the Volkswagen Polo of Bruno Longepe and Ronan Choucroun.

In third position and winner of the FRGT Group, the Porsche 991 GT3 of Anthony Cosson and Kévin Millet.   They won ES4 and ES7.  In 2020 Anthony had finished second on this rally in a Skoda and won the Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic recently at the end of February in this Porsche, so was expected to do well.  Perhaps, the damp early stages didn't help his chances of doing better.

In second position, the Volkswagen Polo GTi of Denis Millet and Manon Verger.  They won the first three stages of this rally when it was damp.

A short rest for Denis and Manon before ES4.  At this stage they were leading the rally and were really going well.  Denis was probably hoping to add to the four wins he has had in the last year.

The winner of the rally was this Skoda Fabia of Nicolas Hernandez and Mathieu Maurin.  They won seven of the twelve stages and led from the end of stage eight onwards.  For local boy Nicolas it was his fourth win in this rally in a row (2018,19,20,22).  

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.

Some of the Porsche rally drivers chatting before the start of ES4.  Anthony Cosson facing us in the centre and his co-driver Kévin Millet on the left.  Alain Colin is on the right and Eric Daguze has his back to us.

5ème Rallye National de la Vienne VHC, 2022

 

The superb Talbot Sunbeam Lotus of Sébastien and Alain Berjot on ES3 breaking for the hairpin.

This rally was run over 9 special stages on Saturday 12th March 2022.  It was well organized by L’A.S.A. Poitou et l’Ecurie Chatellerault Poitou even if there were issues and delays caused by the modern cars leaving the road.

There were just eight starters for the VHC section of the 2022 Rallye National de la Vienna, of which four were Porsches. I saw them on three of the special stages and got a variety of shots using a variety of lenses - all of the VHC competitors are shown below.    The modern rally cars will feature in a future post (with a rather different group of photos).

VHC stands for Véhicule Historique de Compétition and they are classic and historic rally cars.  They compete on speed, just like the modern rally cars and in a number of different groups and classes.  I love seeing them rallying for both the variety and nostalgia.

The rally was centred around Châtellerault in the Vienne department of France but I took my photos at the three special stages as noted below:

ES1 -  Krys - Zone Public 1 - Leigné-les-Bois - The cars could be seen entering the village and then taking a very tight hairpin around a tree before taking a couple of right hand corners to exit the village.  A very popular place to watch the rally and thus I couldn't get a good shot of the hairpin itself.

ES3 - Karting Loisir 86 - Zone Public 8 - Monthoiron - The cars could be seen entering and taking a right hand corner (almost a hairpin) and then accelerating way.  This was another hugely popular place to watch the rally which made it difficult to get a good view.

ES5 - Regional Ascenseurs - Zone Public 4 - Pleumartin - A less popular spot where you could see the cars assembling for the stage and then accelerating way.  A good place to use my fixed length 135mm F2 lens.

I particularly enjoyed watching the Talbot Lotus Sunbeam as it was being driven aggressively and I have a soft sport for these cars having had a one day course on driving these on grass at a rally school many years ago.   Very nice to see a Lancia Beta Coupé and Opel Manta competing as well.  Strangely, I am rather cold towards the VHC Porsches even if I love the modern ones.

ES1 - Entering the village of Leigné-les-Bois

The Porsche 911 3.0L of Valère Jaudinaud and David Delabriere. 

Benoît Charron and Romain Huesca in their Peugeot 205 Rallye.

The Lancia Beta Coupé of Michel and Pascale Taillebuis.

ES1 - Taking the right hand corner in Leigné-les-Bois

Having rounded the hairpin, the Opel Manta of Jean-Philippe Le Cam and Sébastien Sullam head into the right-hander.

The Talbot Sunbeam Lotus was very fast through the village on ES1 crewed by Sébastien and Alain Berjot.  

ES3 - The Hairpin (Epingle)

The Lancia Beta Coupé of Michel and Pascale Taillebuis on ES3.

ES3 - Accelerating away from the hairpin

Benoît Charron and Romain Huesca in their Peugeot 205 Rallye.

ES5 - The start of the special stage

Immediately after lunch and the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus is leading the VHC field as it accelerates away from the start of ES5.

Samuel Lostis and Thierry Devaux accelerate away from ths start of ES5 in their Porsche 964 Carrera 2.  They were top finisher of the Group AJ/BJ/NJ cars and second overall of the  VHC cars.

The Lancia Beta Coupé of Michel and Pascale Taillebuis.

The Porsche 911 3.0L of Valère Jaudinaud and David Delabriere. They finished third overall and second in Group 4/5.

The Opel Manta of Jean-Philippe Le Cam and Sébastien Sullam

Philippe Baudiniere and Maxime Vilmot in their Porsche 911 RS.  They were the only finisher in the Classic Group.

ES5 -off into the distance

Joël Vicaire and Nicolas Jeudy in their Porsche 911S.  They won the VHC rally.

The Talbot Sunbeam Lotus of Sébastien and Alain Berjot. After being very competitive on some stages they finished fourth overall of the VHCs and won Group 2.

The Lancia Beta Coupé of Michel and Pascale Taillebuis.

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.

This rather nice Renault 5 Turbo was acting as the "0" car for the VHCs.