Rallye Tout-Terrain Dunes et Marais 2022

The Rivet Nissan of Joël Chopin and Bixente Castege in opposite lock and kicking up the dirt.  Fantastic!

 The Rallye Tout-Terrain Dunes et Marais is probably the biggest motor sport event in the Charente Maritime department of France, being a round of the Championnat de France des Rallyes Tout-Terrain.  This was the 45th running of the event which takes place near the city of Royan.  Held on the 8th and 9th October 2022, I attended the ES3, the third special stage "Les Alluchons" near the town of Coze.   I had intended to  attend a second special stage but having taken a shot of every runner and such a large variety of shots on this stage, and following the usual delays, I decided to be content with the photos that I have already taken, many of which I share below.

This is an off road rally which is fought over mainly by specialist vehicles.  The cars were quite quiet but very spectacular in terms of kicking up the dust, yumping and opposite lock sliding on the corners.  Most of the cars were prototype cars designed specifically for cross country rallying but which have engines derived from production cars.   The entry list is quite large and varied with over 150 vehicles.

As I had just a 45 minute drive to see this spectacle it will be a permanent fixture on my motor sport photography calendar from now on.

When I saw the entry list, I was pleasantly surprised to see more than a half dozen British crews taking part and that a familiar French driver, Christophe Wilt, was also competing.  I had taken notice of Christophe's driving on the Epernay rally earlier this year.   See below how they fared.

Top Ten Finishers

The top ten finishers were all four wheel drive prototype cars competing in the top T1A group.

Overall winners of the rally were Christophe Wilt and Antony Bois in a Rivet Porsche.  Nice to see a familiar name amongst the runners.

Another view of the winning car a few seconds later.

The Dronde Nissan of Benoit Bersans and Cédric Nicolau finished second.  Benoit is leading the driver's championship after eight rounds.

Third at the finish was this Fouquet Nissan of Yannick Lonne-Peyret and Vincent Marestin.  As you can see the front runners are often very spectacular.

Top British runner in fourth place was this Lofthouse BMW of Justin Birchall and Andy Powell.

Looking more like a normal rally car was this Dronde Porsche of Bastien Dronde and Lucas Campane in fifth place.

Flying over one of the yumps is the BMC Susuki of Jean Garicoix and Thomas Garispe.  They finished sixth.

Heading towards us through the Colza field are Joël Chopin and Bixente Castege in a Rivet Nissan.  They finished seventh.

In eighth place was the Rivet BMW of Fabrice and Morgane Rivet.

Top championship contenders, Stephan Barthe and Denis Podevin in this Fouquet Nissan could only finish ninth.

The second of the Brits to score a top ten finish was this Rmoffroad Jaguar of Richard Mann and Rebecca Clarkson.

The Top Two Wheel Drive Finishers. 

Winner of Group T1B and eleventh overall was this Cledze Susuki of Yann Clevenot and Romain Dupouts.  Yann leads the 2 Wheel Driver's Challenge after 8 rounds.

Second in T1B and twelfth overall was this Caze Tomahawk Susuki of Axel Zielinski and Maxime Bourdieu.

Third in Group T1B was this Fouquet Honda of Grégory Boucher and Romain Brocheton.

Fourth in Group T1B was this Rivet Honda of Hervé Brient and Aurélie Montus.

The Top 4x4 T2B vehicles

Winner of the T2B 4x4 Group was this Jeep Grand Cherokee of the Trophée Rallye 4x4 leaders Joris Beyer and Lorraine Claudepierre.

Second in this Group was another Jeep Grand Cherokee crewed by Hervé and Pierre-Antoine Dulondel.

Yet another Jeep Grand Cherokee came third, this one crewed by Fabien Daigneau and Baptiste Caquelard.

In fourth place were Bruno and Denis Bourland in a Mitsubishi Pajero.

In fifth place was this Nissan Patrol of Pierre Gourragne and Mickaël Riva.

Top SSVs

Top SSV was this Can Am BRP of Anthony and Alison Menanteau.

Second of the SSVs was this Can Am Rotax crewed by Guillaume Noirot and Alexis Correia.

This Can Am Maverick XRS QRB was third in the SSV Group crewed by Sylvain and Arnaud Lapeyronnie.

Fourth in the SSV Group came Stéphane Azaban and Cécilia Pouchou in this Can-Am Rotax.

Group T3.

The only finisher in Group T3 was this Yamaha YXZ of Sébastien and Lilou Colome.

This YamahaYXZ 1000 R did not finish the rally.

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 à condition de créditer le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com, et de fournir un lien vers cette page.

The yump was a long way away and was testing even my 400mm zoom but this is a reasonable shot of a Phil's Car Suzuki taking off.

An Urrutia crewed by Sébastien Marroyer and Kevin Chotard applying opposite lock.

This shot shows the large crowd that was present on ES3 as a Caze Nissan kicks up the dust.

A Caze Tomohawk comes in to land.

A Dronde Nissan kicks up the dirt as it heads along the vines.

A lot of my favourite shots of the day included an old windmill in the background.   This car is a Rivet Mak Sport.   This short was taken at 1/160th of a second as the car headed past at speed towards the moulin kicking up dust from the field.

British driver Chris Bird was in the top ten of the championship heading into this round.  Here he crosses a field of colza towards me in his Rivet Ford.

Some of the cars looked almost like normal rally cars but weren't.  This is a Sansot Honda.

A Fouquet Nissan heads away from us onto another part of the special stage.

Another British crew - Martin Cox and Peter Widdop in a GSR V8.

A Caze Renault.

Angoulême Circuit des Remparts 2022 - Classic Cars

 

1929 Bugatti T37A 1500cc.  Karine Blanchard's car in the paddock.

The Circuit des Remparts was a circuit around the streets of Angoulême where they held the Grand Prix des Remparts in 1939 (Formula Libre) and then again from 1947 to 1951 (Formula Two) and then again for a final time in 1955 (small capacity cars).   The circuit was a short 1.3km track and it hasn't changed since the original configuration.  Winners included Juan-Manuel Fangio (Maserati), Raymond Sommer (Alfa Romeo) and Maurice Trintignant (Simca-Gordini).  The circuit was revived in 1978 and homologated in 1983 so that actual racing could take place again.  Races have been held most years since although interrupted by Covid in 2020.  The revival includes a Concours d'Elegance on the Friday, a Classic Car Rally on the Saturday and racing on the Sunday.  All weekend many classic cars can be seen parked around the town.

I didn't book early enough to get a grandstand seat (essential if you want to enjoy the racing) so I had decided to wait until next year before getting my first experience of  Le Circuit des Remparts.   Then on Friday evening I got a call from a friend, Stuart, asking if I wanted to travel up to Angoulême in his classic car and enjoy walking around the town looking at the classic cars.  I didn't need asking twice!

There was much more going on in Angoulême than I expected and shall definitely want to come again next year and will hopefully be early enough to buy a ticket for the grandstands.

My Journey to and from Angoulême

On the road in a Riley Kestrel Special.

Stuart's car is a Riley Special.  With a mid-thirties Riley Kestrel chassis and a 1.8 litre 6 cylinder Riley motor the car was converted in the early sixties into a 2 seater open sports car with an aluminium body.  Stuart has restored it into the attractive classic car it is today.  The car is about as far as it gets from modern air conditioned cars!   There is no roof, just two small aero screens to protect you from the winds, no heating, no seat belts, no side impact protection, an outside handbrake etc.  There is just the joy of motoring as it used to be pre-war.   It was really cold as we motored up to Angoulême together but what a pleasure as it is some years since I have travelled in such a car.   We were quite a sensation on the last part of the journey up the N10 as classic car fans hooted and waved to us. Great fun and with such a car we had no trouble parking with the other classic cars in the centre of town. Thanks, Stuart!

The view through the aero screen of the Riley from the passenger seat.  Fantastic!

More pictures of the Riley further down the post.

The Paddocks

As we didn't have tickets we couldn't get into the main paddocks but we could get a few glimpses through the fencing in a couple of spots.

One of the stars at Angoulême was Ari Vatanen, World Rally Champion in 1981, and there was a demo run of Group B rally cars in his honour.  On the left are a MG Metro, Peugeot and Lada of that era.

The paddocks are in the streets of Angoulême and here you can see some of the pre-war racers.

The ex-Malcolm Campbell 1913 Talbot.

One of the Austin Seven racers.  They had a special race for these cars on Sunday.  This is a twenties car.

The Bugatti Paddock

The Bugatti paddock was accessible to all in a courtyard in the centre of town.  Most of the cars seemed to be T51s but there were some other models including a couple of Brescias. 

The Bugatti T51 that was driven by Julien Debrulle.

Bugatti T51

Bugatti T51

1920 Ballot Indianapolis on display.

A 1933 Bugatti T51 gets a top up of water before the race.

A tribute to Abarth

There was an "Exposition Abarth" in the town hall gardens in the middle of town with a number of interesting cars.

1974 Fiat SE 030 Abarth.  A mid-engined competition sports car with a 3.5 litre Dino V6 engine and a Pinifarina designed body.  One of the two cars built finished second in the 1974 Giro d'Italia endurance event.  They never raced again but it can be seen as a forerunner of the Lancia Beta Montecarlo.

1963 Simca Abarth 1150 SS Corsa 6 speed.

1973 Abarth-Osella PA1.

1962 Fiat 2300S Coupé Abarth.

My Top 20 from the spectator "classic car" parking areas

There were lots of amazing cars parked around the town with certain streets dedicated to different makes of car.  In no particular order :

This MGA "Le Mans" took my fancy.

A Triumph TR3 and a 1977 Triumph Dolomite Sprint.

A pair of Austin Sevens.

This Martini liveried Lancia Delta attracted a lot of attention.

1963 Renault Dauphine 1094

Jensen Healey

DB Panhard Le Mans Luxe.  Next to it is a three wheeler Blackjack Zero of 2007, not a classic car but in the spirit of an old BSA or Morgan.

Lancia Lambda.

Matra D-Jet.

Jaguar E-Type V12.

1969 Retailleau-Bodin PRAB 1100 Berlinette.   From what I can gather, two friends built this in their last year at Technical College in France.   They actually built two cars, one in white and one red. This one  is powered by a Renault 8 engine and has always been owned by André Bodin.

MG TC.

Alfa Romeo 2600 Spider and Ferrari 308 GTS.

Two Simca Rallye 2.

A rare 1939 Georges Irat OLC 3 cabriolet.

1917 McLaughlin Buick D45.  Apparently made in Ontario Canada.

Iso Grifo.

I must include Stuart's Riley Kestrel Special, here seen framed by a Ferrari Mondial and a Renault.

Renault 5 Turbo.

This car (Renault?) had been one of the entrants at Friday's Concours d'Elegance.

Other Exhibits around the town:

OAK Racing LMP2 Morgan-Nissan art car.

1908 Chenard et Walcker.  A shame the restorer mis-spelt the name as Walker!

Ford-Montier.   Charles Montier had a factory in Courbevoie in the twenties and adapted the Ford model T to French standards changing both the bodywork and mechanics.   This led to his cars taking part in motor sport events as well such as the Course de Côte de Gaillon and the first 24 hours of Le Mans.

There was a big display of Renault competition cars many driven by the great Jean Ragnotti who was present during the weekend.  Here is his one of his Monte Carlo Rally Renault 5 cars.

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 à condition de créditer le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com, et de fournir un lien vers cette page.

Riley Kestrel Special

Riley Kestrel Special