9ème Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic VHRS - 2024

 

The winning VHRS Subaru Impreza GT of Christian and Marie Lantres.

The Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic Rally 2024 attracted a good field of VHRS cars (Véhicule Historique de Régularité Sportive).  These are competitors who, rather than going for outright speed, attempt to achieve a set time.  They can choose from high speed, intermediate speed, moderate speed or low speed. In any zone their average speed cannot be more than 75kph or they start getting penalties.

The most successful of the VHRS cars on the rally and the most interesting cars of the 39 who were taking part are shown below:

The Podium VHRS cars

The second placed VHRS Volkswagen Golf GTi of Aurelien Carrasco and Nicolas Demptos.

Crossing the Dordogne River as they leave Castillon-la-Bataille is the third placed Subaru Impreza 1990 turbo of Renaud Canuyt and Laurent Jammet.

Other Winners

The best of those attempting a low target time were Patrice and Annie Gabarrou in their Talbot Samba.

Ready to leave for the start of the VHRS rally in Castillon-la-Bataille is the Audi Quattro of Francis Verbiguie and Jean-Louis Lacoste.  They were the best of those going for fast target time.

The Lania Fulvia 1600 of Vincent Mouret and Francois Cardon.  They were the best of those aiming for a moderate target time.

Interesting Other Cars

The oldest car competing was this Peugeot 203 C from the fifties.

An unusual car to see in VHRS rallies was this Buggy Sarap Buffalo.  This is a French beach buggy.

CG Simca  Type B 1200S.   One of my favourite French sports cars!  It was produced in the late sixties and early seventies based on a Simca 1200S but with coachwork by Chappe et Gessalin.

A Toyota Carina, I assume from the seventies.

An Alpine A310 V6.

Ford Escort RS2000 Mk2.

Lancia Beta Coupé GR4.  Lovely to see one of these again!

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.

Opel Kadett B Rally.

9éme Rallye Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic VHC - 2024

 

The Porsche 911 SC of Pierre Chauvin and Kevin Peccolo.  Nice looking colour scheme rather reminiscent of the 1970 LM24 winner but this one didn't finish the rally.

For lovers of historic rally cars, the great thing about the Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic is that it sports a large field of VHC cars (Vehicules Historique Competition).   In 2024 there were 19 cars at the start of which 9 finished the rally.  Perhaps, the entry wasn't as good as in 2022 when 25 cars started of which two were Lancia-Abarth 037s, but a good entry nonetheless.  Originally expected to have 12 stages of approximately 130km competitive time driving, the event was cut short at the end of the ninth stage due to bad weather.   A national rally they also had a permit for foreign drivers to take part and thus there was one Belgian entry - always nice to see a Ford Escort Mk1. 

The VHC cars waiting for the depart of the rally in Castillon-la-Bataille.

Our day started seeing most of the VHC cars getting ready to start the rally in Castillon-la-Bataille and then we saw them all again on Special Stage 3.   All of the cars are shown in this blogpost, either above or below.   The special stage sran through the Bordeaux vineyards.

Early leaders of the VHC rally were Alain Lemonnier and Eric Bentolila in this lovely Lancia Delta Integrale 16S.

The winning Ford Sierra Cosworth 4x4 of Vincent Esteve and Anne Pointet.  They led from Special Stage 4 onwards.

In second place was this Citroën Visa 1000 Pistes of Mathieu Herran and Fabien Janssens.

Final place on the podium went to this lovely looking BMW M3 E30 of José and Jean-Philippe Lamic.

Fourth were Bruno and Karine Chaudet in this Porsche 911 SC.  They were the first of the Classic as opposed to VHC cars.

Fifth were Michel Beziat and Bastien Girard in this Ford Sierra 4x4.

Sixth was this Peugeot 205 Rallye Louis Quetier and Dimitri Pilet.

Seventh was this Porsche 2.8 RSR driven by Joël Vicaire and Michel Perrin.

Eighth were a team frm Belgium, Angelo Desaeyer and Marc Sevrin in this Ford Escort RS1600 Mk1.

Final finisher was this VW Golf GTi 1 1600.  It had crashed on one special stage on day 1.

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.

We saw this Mazda 323 Turbo 4WD depart onto the rally but unfortunately it crashed on the first stage.

This Lancia Delta Integrale 16S retired with mechanical problems on Day 1 having led after the first three special stages.

This Ford Sierra Cosworth 4x4 retired with mechanical problems, rejoined the rally and then retired again.

This Opel Ascona B 1921cc didn't start the second day of the rally.

This BMW 323i didn't finish the rally.

This Volkswagen Golf didn't finish the rally.

This Lancia Delta Integrale had mechanical issues on Day 2.

This Lancia Delta HF crashed on Special Stage 9.

This Porsche 911 SC left Parc Fermé and thus wasn't classified,

5ème Rallye Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic Moderne - 2024

 

Although it only finished in 42nd place, it was a real pleasure to see the Hommell Berlinette driven by Philippe and Quentin Costeseque.  A really beautiful French car.

This was the fifth instance that the Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic has had a plateau for modern cars and it gives us local to the region a chance, early in the year, to see some fast rally cars compete over the up and down tortuous vineyard roads of the Appelation Bordeaux.   Held over 2 days near the end of February, the rally promised three different special stages, each held four times, and thus a toal of 130km of timed rallying.  The weather for the weekend was not forecast to be good but it looked as though the Saturday stages might have a chance of being head in good weather.  I thus chose to spectate on Saturday on the 10.53km ES3 Doulezon-Pujols stage near Béros.  Accompanying me on his first French rally was Michael who enjoyed seeing some French cars he was not familiar with such as the Hommell. We had a pleasant afternoon and stayed dry even if it was a little cold.

The rally was a National Rally and counted towards La Coupe de France des Rallyes (coef 3) and the local league of Nouvelle Aquitaine Sud.  59 cars started and 43 ended up being classified as finishers.

The very fast Porsche 991 GT3 of Anthony Cosson and Kevin Millet.   It was very entertaining to watch them really attack the thirtd special stage.

Pre-rally favourite was Anthony Cosson in his Porsche who had won this rally when last held in 2022.  He won stages 2 and 3 and was amazingly fast as he passed us on ES3.  He thus held the lead fairly easily after three special stages.  Unfortunately, his car hit mechanical issues and he retired on ES4.

The Volkswagen Polo R5 of Cédric de Sousa and Emmanuel Brissaud.

After the demise of Cosson's Porsche, Cédric de Sousa took control of the rally and won the next three stages to lead comfortably at the end of day one.  Unfortunately, he also hit mechanical issues and retired on ES7 the first stage of day two.

The rally winners, Loïc Costes and Christelle Perrin, in their Peugeot 208 GR LINE.  

Winner of the first two Sunday stages, the new leader of the rally was young 24 year old Loïc Costes.  Although young he has already Fbeen rench Champion of all terrain rallies (Rallye Tout Terrain)  in 2021.  Due to very inclement weather conditions, the organisers decided to cacnel the last four special stages and thus Loic had his first overall win in a tarmac rally.  He was also winner of Group FRC4 and the Rally 4 class.

Second overall and winner of FRC2 and R5/Rally2 were Romain Buran and Nicolas Gilet in this Ford Fiesta.  They missed the win by just over 10 seconds.

Final position on the overall podium went to this Peugeot 208 driven by Benjamin Rico and Timothée Dinet. 

Fourth place and winner of class R3 went to Aurelien Pion and Maeva Perrinaud in this Renault Clio.

Fifth overall and winner of the important French National group was this Mitsubishi Lacer Evo X driven by Jérôme Clarety and Philippe Courtine.

Sixth overall and R2 class winner were Laurent Zambon and Carine Chaumeau.

Others taking part:

This BMW Z3 finished 17th.

This Porsche 996 GT3 RS 3.5 finished tenth and won the French GT group.

This BMW 318 Compact didn't finish.

This Mercedes-Benz C180 finished 35th.

This Renault Clio finished a good eighth.

This Subaru Impreza WRX STI finished a good ninth.

This Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X didn't finish.

This Renault Clio Williams finished 31st.

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.

This Citroën Saxo VTS finished 34th.

This Peugeot 106 16S finished 26th.