14eme Rallye National De Saintonge VHC, 2023

 

The Lancia Delta HF Intégrale of Carla Hayet and Laura Bohler unfortunately retired with mechanical issues before the fourth special stage.

The Rallye de Saintonge VHC 2023 was a round of the Coupe de France des Rallyes VHC.   Run towards the end of July 2023 it had a route of nearly 284km and it had 8 special stages which totalled nearly 130kms.  There were two special stages, each repeated four times.  The longest one started at Bussac-sur-Charente and I attended the first running on Saturday near the junction of the Route de Beauchall and the Chemin du Grand Fief.

There were 14 VHC runners and four classic runners, all of which can be seen below. However, it was a tough rally and only half the cars finished.   It was lovely to see three Lancia Deltas and a Ford Escort Mk1 but none of my favourites finished.

A report on the modern rally that followed the VHCs is coming soon.

Overall VHC winners were Romuald and Eva Hostein in this Honda Civic Vtec.  They also won this rally in 2022.

Second overall and winner of their Group and Class were Pierrick and Nathalie Chauvel in this Porsche 911 SC.

Third overall was this Porsche 911 Carrera 2 (964) crewed by Samuel Lostis and Baptiste Jeanneau.

Fourth overall were Daniel and Jordy Dupont in this Peugeot 205 GTi.

Winner of the Classic Group were Christophe and Céline Longe in this BMW 323i.  They had been runners up last year.

Second in the Classic Group was this Porsche 911 3L RS of Philippe Baudiniere and Maxime Vilmot.

Fifth of the VHC cars was this Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 crewed by Dominique and Hugo Tolmais.

Sixth and final finisher amongst the VHC cars were Nicolas and Jean-Claude Berard in this Peugeot 205 GTi 1.6.

Final finisher in the Classic Group was this Volkswagen GTi of Christophe Monnetreau and Bertrand Tourneux.

This BMW 323i did not finish.

This was one of a number of Lancias that did not finish - a Delta Integrale.

This Ford Escort Mk1 RS2000 did not finish.

This beautifully liveried Lancia Delta didn't finish either.  However, it was fastest on this first stage driven by Paul Paille and Johann Hayet.

Another non-finisher was this Ford Sierra Cosworth 4x4.

This Ford Sierra X4Ri also didn't finish.

This Peugeot 205 Rallye left the road and retired later on this first stage.

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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.

This Opel Kadett E GSi 16v also left the road on the first stage and retired.