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,

2ème Rallye Régional Val de Boutonne - Moderne - 2023

The rally was held in mixed conditions.  Here a Peugeot 205 GTi races through the rain.

The second ever Rallye Val de Boutonne managed to attract a good entry of 102 cars for the main rally.  The rally was held over one day on Sunday 26th March 2023 over two different stages each run three times giving six special stages in all and 40km of competitive driving.  I took these photos on the tight last corner of the stage between Lussant and Cabariot in the Charente Maritime department of France.  The weather was windy and very changeable with everything from sun to heavy rain.

This regional  rally qualified for the Coupe de France des Rallyes and the local league - Nouvelle Aquitaine Nord.

Last year's winners Bruno Longépé and Ronan Choucrun in their Volkswagen Polo GTi R5 won the second special stage but crashed out on the third and retired from the rally.  All of the other stages were won by the eventual winners de Sousa and Bonneris, also in a VW Polo.   The Porsche 997 was consistently in the top three times on each stage but not quite up to challenging the VW Polos on speed.

An enjoyable day's photography quite close to where I now live and surprisingly different shots taken from the same corner but from different positions.  Perhaps, due to the weather there were not too many spectators at this corner.  The buvette or drinks tent was very handy when the rain came and I took some of my best shots of the day from under its cover!

Another shot in the rain - a Peugeot 106.

Overall, Group and Class Winners :

Shown in the order they were classified overall.

The winners of the rally were Cédric de Sousa and Nicolas Bonneris in this Volkswagen Polo.

Second overall were Jimmy Thibaudeau and Dimitri Pilet in this Porsche 997 GT3.

Third overall and winners of the FRallyNat Group were Gary Guerin and Jordan Lecomte in this Subaru Impreza.  This was the same position they achieved last year.

Fourth overall and winners of the FRC4 Group were Pascal and Mathieu Phelippeau in this Renault Clio 5.

Fifth overall and winners of the R3 class were Aurélien Pion and Maëva Perrinaud in this Renault Clio.

Eighth overall and winners of the N4 class were Joffrey Coussot and Jérémy Exposito in this Renault Megane.

Tenth overall and winners of the R2 class were Anthony Faussabry and Emmanuel Brochard in this Peugeot 208 VTI.

Winners of the A6K class were Florent Jaunas and Quentin Mounier Jaunas in this Citroën Saxo Kit Car.

Winners of the A6 class were Jean Brasseur and Bruno Robert in this Peugeot 106 S16.

Winners of the A7 class were Jean-Philippe and Fernande Rousseau in this Renault Clio Williams.

This Honda Civic VTI clobbered the bales but recovered to win Groupe FRC5 crewed by Johnny Martin and Christophe Can.

Winner of Class F214 was this Renault Clio 3 RS crewed by Sébastien Germain and Sébastien Gouionnet.

Winner of class Rally5 was this Renault Clio crewed by David Defaux and Aurélien Baron.

Opposite locking on its way to a class win in N3 is this Peugeot 206 RC crewed by Kévin and Lenny Hurtaud.

Winner of class A5 was this Peugeot 106 XSI of Emeric Gouineau and Brice Ricou.

Winners of Class F212 were Jean Blayon and Catherine Giraud in this Peugeot 106 S16.

Winners of class N1 were Mickael Guinot and Grégory Jeanneau in this Peugeot 106 Rallye.

Winners of class N2Série were Sébastien Peninou and Eva Hostein in this Citroën Saxo VTS.

Winners of class F213 were Jérôme Lecomte and Aurore Simonnet in this Peugeot 106 S16 Rallye.

Winners of class R1 were Anthony Gouin and Fabien Yonnet in this Renault Twingo RS.

Winners of Group FRCA were Alexis Machefert and Bryan Bouthier in this Peugeot 206 RC.

Winner of class FR2 was this Opel Adam Cup crewed by Benoît and Nicolas Barbier.

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.

Other participants:

A Renault Clio 4 RS splashing through the puddles.  It finished ninth overall in the hands of Alexandre de Sousa and Sébastien Pinaud.

A Peugeot 208 on opposite lock though the final corner of ES4.

Lovely to see a Simca Rallye 3 still taking part in rallies.

A Citroën C2 on opposite lock in the damp conditions.

There are still a lot of Peugeot 205s rallying.

A Peugeot 205 Rallye.

A Peugeot 106 S16 on opposite lock.

A Peugeot 205 GTi in the rain.

A Peugeot 205 in the rain.

Renault Clio RS in the rain.