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,

2022 Le Mans Classic - Group C Racing

 

The sixth placed 1987 Jaguar XJR8 of Richard Meins leading the seventh placed 1990 Porsche 962C of Lars Erik Nielsen through the Esses.

Group C covered the period between 1982 and 1993.  For many of the fans, the race and the paddock covering this period at the Le Mans Classic is the highlight of their weekend.  Loud, fast and covering a period many of us remember.  What particularly made this year's race special was it being the 40th anniversary of the start of Group C racing and having seven Group C Jaguars present.  All of the Group C cars that raced at the 2022 Le Mans Classic are pictured in this blogpost:

The winning 1988 Jaguar XJR9 of Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen at Tertre Rouge.

The  second placed 1991 Jaguar XJR-14 of Christophe d'Ansembourg.

The third placed 1990 Jaguar XJR-12 of Olivier Galant.

In fourth place was this 1990 Porsche 962C of Ivan Vercoutere and Ralf Kelleners.

Fifth place went to Erik Maris in this 1992 Peugeot 905 Evo 1 bis.

Eighth place went to Nicolas D'Ieteren in this 1990 Porsche 962C.

Shawn Lynn was ninth in this 1987 Jaguar XJR-9

This 1990 Spice SE89C driven by Eric De Seynes and Eric Van de Poele was tenth.

This 1988 Jaguar XJR-9 finished eleventh driven by James Thorpe and Claudio Cappelli.

One of my favourite Group C cars is this 1989 Aston Martin AMR1 which was driven by Alexandre Leroy into 12th position.

In thirteenth place was this 1989 Porsche 962C driven by Lukas Halusa.

This 1988 GKW 862-C2 came fourteenth driven by Massimo and Marco Guerra.

The 1988 Argo JM19 C of Marco Famagalli and Stephano Zerbi came fifteenth.

The unusual looking 1985 Gebhardt JC853 finished sixteenth driven by Stanley Dickens.

Seventeenth was the 1985 Toyota Tom's 85C driven by Masanori Sekiya and Kasuki Nakajima. Kasuki's father Satoru drove one of these at Le Mans in 1985.

Eighteenth was the 1988 Tiga GC288 of Vincent Neurrisse.

This 1987 Jaguar XJR-8 of Henry Pearman finished nineteenth.

Rounding out the top 20 was Max Von Braunmühl in this 1990 Porsche 962.

21st - 1991 Porsche 962C - Hans-Jörg Hübner and Nick Salewsky.

22nd - 1984 Sthemo SMC2 - Romain Belleteste and Christophe Gadais.

23rd - 1985 March 85G - Romain Rocher.

24th - 1988 Olmas GLT 200 - Bertrand Rouchaud and Benjamin Monnay.

25th - 1986 Tiga GT286 - Jack Fabby and Tim Macrow.

NC - 1990 Spice SE90C - Pierre-Loup Boch.

NC - 1993 Peugeot 905 Evo 1 Bis - David Hart.

NC - 1985 EMKA C84 - Douglas Titford and Trevor Reeves

NC - 1990 Spice SE90C - Tony Sinclair.

NC - 1983 Porsche 956 - Rainer Becker and Mike Wilds.

NC - 1990 Spice SE90P - Cal Meeker.

NC - 1990 Spice SE90C - Patrick D'Aubreby.

NC - 1989 Spice SE89C - Mike and Matthew Wrigley.

NC - 1990 Cheetah G606 - Eric Rickenbacher.

DNS - 1985 Ecosse C285 - Lionel Roch.

DNS - 1991 Gebhardt C91 -  Michael Lyons

One of the seven Jaguars races past as I look back from Tertre Rouge towards the Dunlop Bridge.

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.

One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing and hearing the 1991 Le Mans winning Mazda 787B give a demonstration lap just before the Group C race.

A pair of Nissans in the paddock.  The 1990 Nissan RC90CP is about to be restored for historic racing having been acquired by Ascott Collection from the Nissan Heritage Collection. The RC90CK has similarly been acquired from Nissan by Ascott.  Hope to see them race again in the future.