3ème Rallye Régional Val de Boutonne - Moderne 2024

A Peugeot 106 Rallye attacking the ES3 stage at Moragne driven by Mickael Guinot and Grégory Jeanneau.  They finished 50th overall.

March 24th saw the third running of the Rallye Val de Boutonne.  A qualifying round of the Coupe de France des Rallyes, it is organised by l'ASA Richelieu and takes place in the Charente Maritime Department.  A French regional rally it is run over six stages (two different stages each run three times over one day) with a total timed competition running of 40km and a total kilometrage of 123km.

A good field of 102 cars started the rally.   I watched them on both ES2 the Lussant-Cabariot stage and ES3 the Moragne - St Coutant stage.   With relatively reasonable weather a good crowd came out to see the rally cars on the stages and in Tonnay-Boutonne.

The Favouites:

Cédric De Sousa, a French driver from a well known rallying family, won the Rally Val de Boutonne in 2023.  He drives a Volkswagen Polo.

Bruno Longepe is a 53 old French rally driver who won the Coupe de France des Rallyes in 2014.  He won the first edition of the Rallye Val de Boutonne in 2022 and is a regular winner in his Volkswagen Polo.

Jimmy Thibaudeau is a 45 year old French rally driver and was runner up in last year's Rallye Val de Boutonne.  He drives a beautiful sounding Porsche 997.

Mathias De Sousa, a cousin of Cédric, is a 32 year old French rally driver, who earlier this month finished second in the Rallye de la Vienne.  He drives a Citroën C3.

The rally was based at the Cooperative Agricole in Tonnay-Boutonne.

All of the top ten finishers and group winners plus a fair selection of the rest are shown below:

The rally winners were Bruno Longepe and Ronan Choucroun in this Volkswagen Polo.  They won five of the six stages.

A close second were Cédric De Sousa and Emmanuel Brissiaud, also in a Volkswagen Polo.  Here they are on stage 2 which they won to take a brief lead in the rally.

Third on the podium in this Citroen C3 were Mathias De Sousa and Baptiste Langlois.

Fourth overall and winner of the FRGT group was this Porsche 997 driven by Jimmy Thibaudeau and Dimitri Pilet.

Fifth overall and winner of FRNAT group were Gary Guerin and Jordan Jecomte in this Subaru Impreza WRC STI.

Sixth overall was this Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X of Johnann Hayet and Kévin Boisson.

Seventh overall and winner of the FRC4 group was this Renault Clio 5 of Thierry Landais and Morgan Lefebvre.

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

Ninth overall in this Renault Clio were Joris and Christophe Decou.

Tenth overall was this Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 of Aurélien and Julie Brillaud.

Tenth overall and winner of the FRC5 group were Noelic Solnais and Paul Beneteaud in this Peugeot 106 XSI. 

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.

Always good to see this Simca Rallye 3 which finished an excellent 24th driven by Michael Etie and Nicolas Brugier.

Peugeot 106 XSI.

Peugeot 106 XSI

Citroën Saxo Kit Car.

Citroën AX.

Peugeot 106 XSI.

Skoda Fabia R5.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8.

Citroën Saxo VTS.

Peugeot 205 Rallye.

Peugeot 106 XSI.

Citroën Saxo.

Peugeot 306.

For the VHC / Classic rally cars in this year's Rallye Val de Boutonne VHC - click here.

I love seeing modern Porsches competing in rallys.

Pau Classic Grand Prix 2023, ADOUR OCEAN and Friends Classic Cup

 

A trio of Renaults exit Parc Beaumont.

The Coupe Adour-Océan was an event that first appeared at Pau in 1967 and lasted until 1977 and I believe was for touring cars driven by local Béarnais drivers and other invitees.  This year the last race each day was for Pre-1980 (mainly) Touring cars driven by local drivers and their friends.  Some of them also were racing in the HTCC race.  Both races were won by Franck Quagliozzi in a Honda Civic.  The pictures are from their free practice session.

This Ford Escort RS Mk1 finished second in Saturday's race driven by Olivier Biotteau,

Always lovely to see a Simca Rallye 3.

This BMW 325i finished second in Sundays race driven by Sébastien Berducq.

A Renault Clio 165 bumps over the kerb.

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.

BMW 323i.

This Porsche 944 competed in the Adour Ocean and Friends race and finished in the top ten on both days.

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.