7ème Course de Côte VHC de La Pommeraye, 2024

 

The fastest VHC car at La Pommeraye was this Reynard 903 driven by Pierre-Alain Bureau.

This was my first time at the Course de Côte de La Pommeraye, which is in the Loire Valley near Angers, which was celebrating its sixty years in 2024.  This is actually only the seventh time that the historic cars have run here.

Running after the modern production cars and before the modern sporting cars, the VHC cars (Véhicule Historique de Compétition) provided some nice variety.  This was a round of the Championnat de France de la Montagne VHC.

Classification was decided by the cumulative time of the best two runs made out of four.  Cars run in different groups and classes as there is a huge variety of types and ages amongst  the 15 or 16 vehicles competing.

I started my day at the first of the esses.  Here is an Alpine A110.

I then moved up to the main viewing area near the passarelle.  This is a Talbot Simca Rallye.

Second fastest VHC was this very quick Ford Escort RS1600 Mk1 driven by Alexandre Chamagne.

Third fastest VHC car was this Martini Mk30 (Formula Renault 1980) driven by Pierre Joly.

Fourth fastest VHC car was this Géri RB08 driven by Daniel Louis.

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Fifth fastest VHC was this beautiful Martini Mk15 (1975 Formula Renault) of Viviane Bonnardel.

Sixth fastest VHC was this Porsche 911 SC of Michel Rolland

Seventh fastest VHC car was this Lucchini SP90-Alfa Romeo driven by Christian Bouvier.

Eighth fastest was this Ford Cortina Lotus driven by Philippe Vernay.

Ninth fastest VHC car was this Simca Rallye II driven by Jean-Claude Brazey.

Tenth fastest was this beautiful Volkswagen Scirocco of Jean-Michel Godet.

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.

A Ford Fiesta Mk1.

A Jidé Type Original.

Renault R5 Alpine.

Rallye Régional du Médoc, 2023 - Moderne

 

The winners of all four special stages were Julien Marty and Michaël Dussillos in this fast Citroën DS3 R5.  However, they were later excluded from the results because they had removed their car from Parc Fermé too early.  Here they are on the last stage ES4 Civrac.

For me it is always good to end my motor sport year on a high note with a visit to the Rallye du Médoc.  It is my nearest motor sport event as the crow flies but as I live on the other side of the Gironde estuary, getting there is another matter!   This year it had just two stages, each run twice, making 4 stages in all.

This year the rally was rather wet but it didn't stop quite a few spectators enjoying the event.  117 cars started the main rally and 78 finished.   This asphalt event was centered in Lesparre-Médoc with stages in Civrac and Ordonnac.  I watched ES2 and ES4 at Civrac.  The eventual top three were rather a surprise and different from previous years.

This post cover the modern rally cars.  Posts on the older VHC and VHRS cars will follow.

A couple of the top contenders in the Parc Fermé in Lesparre-Médoc on the afternoon before the rally.

As I waited for dawn and the first rally cars to appear, the sky was very red behind the church in Civrac.  We were obviously in for some bad weather later in the day.

The winners of the rally, Stéphane and Léa Pustelnik, in their Skoda Fabia R5 on ES2.

  They are a father and daughter team and this was their first win in this car and their first win since 2021.

Second place went to another Skoda Fabia R5 driven by Patrice and Valérie Robert.  This is them in the rain on ES4.

Here they are earlier in the day on ES2 trying very hard and getting a little wide on a tight corner.

It was getting very dark during ES2 and here the third placed Renault Clio R3 cuts through the gloom as it approaches a tight corner.  It was driven by Aurélien Pion and Maëva Perrinaud.

Fourth overall and winner of class R4 was Johann Hayet and Kevin Boisson in this Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.

A relatively rare French rally car from the nineties, this Hommell Berlinette Echappement finished the event but some way off the pace.  However as the only GT10 car to finish, it won its group and class.  it was driven by Philippe and Quentin Costeseque.

The Porsche 996 GT3 leaves the road on ES2 but continues before eventual retirement.

Another car to end up in the ditch but continue was this Renault Clio Rally 5 of Sylvain and Ludovic Pina. 

A Honda Integra Type-R driven by Sébastien Paille and Mickaël Gemon.

A Peugeot 106 S16 has a moment.

An Opel Kadett GT/E driven by Thierry Padilla and Aurélie Furlano did well to finish 43rd amongst the more modern cars.

Another car, a Peugeot 106 Rallye, visits the ditch!

The Renault Clio Rally 3 of Fabien and Antoine Senamaud that finished sixteenth.

BMW 318 Ti Compact.

This Peugeot 207 RC finished twentieth in the hands of Hervé Brouilliaud and Philippe Courtine.

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.

A Peugeot 206 S16.

A Renault 5 GT Turbo.

An opposite locking BMW 318 Ti Compact that finished twelfth driven by Philippe Novotny and Michael Lafagne. 

The Citroen DS3 R5 of Julien Marty in the rain on ES4.

30ème Rallye National de la Vienne 2022 - Moderne

Christian and Nathalie Roulleaux in their Peugeot 206 Super 1600 on ES3.  They eventually hit mechanical issues that prevented them finishing.

The 2022 Rallye de la Vienne was the thirtieth running of the event and was a national tarmac rally event counting for 'La Coupe de France des Rallyes coefficient 3' and the local regional league championship of Nouvelle Aquitaine Nord.   There were 94 cars that started the rally and 67 that finished.  The rally was held over 12 special stages on Saturday 12th March 2022.  In total there were 132km of special stages for which an interesting and varied field of GT and touring cars assembled and many of them can be seen in action from the photos I took on ES1 and ES3.     There was a good battle for the lead of the rally between the R5 cars 1 (Hernandez) and 2 (Millet) with the GT3 Porsche of Anthony Cosson keeping them on their toes.  Also nice to see some young talent doing well on the rally such as Matteo Chatillon.

A couple of competitors were hurt on this rally when they crashed in to an empty house.  I wish them a fast recovery.

It was also good to see so many spectators at this rally, even if at times it made it difficult to get close to the action (I am an amateur photographer with no media pass, so I shoot from the public zones)..... but good to see you all there. good to to know that I am not the only one to enjoy rally cars.

The Citroën C2 of Romain Fouquet and Benoît Ducroix on ES3.  They retired with mechanical issues on ES9.

It may surprise some of my readers that local hero Simon Pagenaud won this rally back in 2014.  He of course went on to win the Indy Car series in 2016 and the Indy 500 in 2019.   He is quoted as saying that rallying is his favourite type of motorsport.  For Simon Pagenaud Indy Car pictures click here.

Sébastien and Delphine Gallard show us how to take a tight hairpin bend in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 with a big slide and opposite lock correction.  Very entertaining for the spectators.

For those interested, I took all of the photos (except of the drivers) on a Canon 7D Mk II DLSR and used the following lenses; 100-400mm zoom, 17-55mm zoom and 135mm F2.  The pictures with the particularly high quality and slightly blurry backgrounds were taken with the latter lens.  Where I was forced to be a long way way from the action I used the longer zoom and when very close to the action the shorter zoom.   Hopefully, you will enjoy seeing this selection of the rally cars and their drivers that take part in French rallies in my region.

For the VHC historic rally cars that competed on this rally, click here.

For the 2022 Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic Rally (Modern), click here.

Some of the cars that finished in the top fifty:

For a change, I have put the cars in reverse order.

In 49th position, the Citroën Saxo Kit Car of Daniel Pedeneau and Goulven Treguier.

In 45th position, The BMW 320i of Fabien Prevoteau and Charlotte Hivert.

In 35th position and lifting a rear wheel, the Peugeot 208 of Samuel Rollier and Emilie Perrinaud.

In 31st position, the Peugeot 207 RC of Nicolas Foulon and Frédéric Evin.

A wider angle view of the ES3 hairpin bend and the 29th placed Renault Clio RS of Denis and Alain Saulnier.

In 27th position, the Peugeot 206 RC of Alexandre Roux and Séverine Sarrazin.

In 26th position and winner of class FRC4/A6K, the Peugeot 206 of Sébatien Gourdon and Romain Metayer.

In 18th position, the Renault Megane of Jonathan Dubray and Christelle Garilliere.

In 16th position, the Hyundai i20 of Jonathan Orens and Franck Mercier.

In 14th position and lifting up a rear wheel, the Renault Clio III RS of Thierry Boisdron and Sandrine Caramigeas.  For Thierry it was his 22nd time of competing in the Rallye de la Vienne, which is more than anyone else.  He has had a podium finish in the past.

In 13th position, the Porsche 997 GT3 RS of Philippe Taffonneau and Julien Boulet.  Philippe won this rally in 2017 in a Porsche.

In 11th position and winner of class F214, the Renault Clio Ragnotti of Anthony Langlois and Eric Meudic.

In tenth position and winner of class R3, the Renault Clio RS of Dimitri Charles and Flavien Rateau.

In ninth position, the Porsche 997 of Alain Colin and Eric Daguze.

In seventh position and winner of Group FRC4, the Peugeot 208 of Matteo Chatillon and Maxence Cornuau.  Very good to see this young 20 year old local driver do so well in his first event this year having entered as a junior in various rallies over the last couple of years..  Maybe he will be a star of the future.

In sixth position, the Skoda Fabia of Fabien and Jérôme Despois.

In fifth position and winner of the French Rally Nat Group, the Mitsubishi Lancia Evo X of Michel and Sylvie Bourgeois.

In fourth position, the Volkswagen Polo of Bruno Longepe and Ronan Choucroun.

In third position and winner of the FRGT Group, the Porsche 991 GT3 of Anthony Cosson and Kévin Millet.   They won ES4 and ES7.  In 2020 Anthony had finished second on this rally in a Skoda and won the Bordeaux Aquitaine Classic recently at the end of February in this Porsche, so was expected to do well.  Perhaps, the damp early stages didn't help his chances of doing better.

In second position, the Volkswagen Polo GTi of Denis Millet and Manon Verger.  They won the first three stages of this rally when it was damp.

A short rest for Denis and Manon before ES4.  At this stage they were leading the rally and were really going well.  Denis was probably hoping to add to the four wins he has had in the last year.

The winner of the rally was this Skoda Fabia of Nicolas Hernandez and Mathieu Maurin.  They won seven of the twelve stages and led from the end of stage eight onwards.  For local boy Nicolas it was his fourth win in this rally in a row (2018,19,20,22).  

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 aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

Some of the Porsche rally drivers chatting before the start of ES4.  Anthony Cosson facing us in the centre and his co-driver Kévin Millet on the left.  Alain Colin is on the right and Eric Daguze has his back to us.