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| Yannick Lacouture applies a small amount of opposite lock to his BMW 318 Compact on the way to fourth place in the Rally for modern cars. |
This one day rally takes place in the pleasant surroundings of the Médoc wine region near Bordeaux. The gathering and the start is around the quay on the banks of the Gironde in Pauillac. The rally then goes north past Pez and St Estèphe for two special stages between Saint Yzans and Ordonnac and then St Germain d’Esteuil and St Seurin de Cadourne. Both stages were taken twice, once in the daylight and once in the dark.
The event is in effect three rallies in one. The main event is for modern cars with the majority of the entries in this category. It is a regional event and part of the Coupe de France des Rallyes. The second event is for VHC rally cars i.e. classic rally cars up to 1985. Both of these are speed events. The third event is a VHRS regularity event for historic cars, GT cars and classic touring cars up to 1995.
Trois Rallyes, deux ambiances, une journée, le Rallye du Médoc est organisé par l'ASACSO.
Trois Rallyes – 1. Rallye du Médoc moderne
pour les spécialistes et les passionnés des rallyes régionaux. 2. Rallye du
Médoc VHC pour les adeptes de la compétition pure en véhicules
historiques. 3. Rallye du Médoc VHRS
pour profiter des plaisirs de la régularité historique sur la route fermée.
Le rallye a proposé quatre spéciales pour un
total de 36km disputées sur deux parcours diffèrents. Deux spéciales était disputées de jour et
deux de nuit, avec le sensation de disputer quatre spéciales totalement
différentes.
Le rallye s’est disputé entièrement sur une
journée – Samedi 12 Décembre 2015.
Départ quai de Pauillac, le rallye a traversé les communes de Pauillac,
Saint Germain d’Esteuil, Saint Estèphe, Saint Seurin de Cadourne, Ordonnac,
Saint Yzans et Saint Christoly Médoc.
Although the majority of the cars are modern rally cars the forty or so classic cars really add to the atmosphere of the Rally du Médoc. It was the 34th holding of the regional rally of Médoc but only the second time the classic cars had been invited.
We came down to the Médoc region both for the Rally, some tourism and some wine tasting and gourmet dinners and spent a great weekend there. Our base for the weekend was the Château Les Ormes de Pez which we can highly recommend.
Early Saturday morning
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| On our way to Pauillac we saw the sun rise behind a Médoc château. |
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| Sunrise on the Pauillac quayside. Car 164 a Lancia Fulvia Zagato entered in the VHRS rallye. |
We were off to some wine tasting in the morning but managed to go down to the quayside in Pauillac as the sun rose and beckoned in a very pleasant day. Here are a few pictures as the sun rose.
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| BMW, Riley and Opel on the quayside waiting for scrutineering and the start for the VHRS rally. |
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| Two Lancia Fulvia entered in the VHRS rallye. |
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| A team of three BMW 323is. |
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| The Lancia Rally 037 that was to win the VHC Rallye. Beautiful mid-engined Group B rally car from the early eighties. |
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| The Lancia of Henri Depons and Michel Petit won again the VHC section. It has an Abarth chassic and 350hp engine. I believe this car is an ex-works car and won the Italian Hillclimb championship in 1985. |
Just before the start
After our wine tasting and just before lunch we popped back into Pauillac for a few more photos.
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| Car No.20, the BMW 318 Compact of Samuel Bézinaud was eventually to win the main event. Car No.21, a Peugeot 206 S16 was to finish third. Car No.22 is a Citroen. |
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| A Porsche 996 GT3 (modern) |
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| The Alfa Romeo 75 of Bruno Guillon (modern) |
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| No 58 - The Citroen C2 R2 Max of Nicolas Radet and Mathieu Palacio in the Parc Fermé. They finished thirtieth (modern). |
Stage near St Seurin
This stage really matched my two passions of cars and wine as the rally cars raced between the vines.
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| The BMW 323i of Jean-Francois and Louis Dumoussaud attack the second stage. In car number 10, they appropriately finished tenth (VHC). |
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| The 8th placed Alpine Renault A110 of Alain Aguillon and Sébastien Pinque (VHC). |
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| An Alpine Renault A310 speeds through the vines (VHC). |
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| Another BMW 323i. This time the seventh placed car of Florian Guillon and Clément Chaille (VHC). |
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| The Mini Cooper S of Pierre Bredon and Bernard Correge (VHC). |
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| The Renault Clio of Loic Larquey (Modern). |
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| The sixth placed Volkswagen Golf III of Patrice Launay and Nicolas Baudoux (modern) |
On the road
As we got lost between the stages we had a chance to take some photos of the rally cars on the road section as well!
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| Quentin Roubinet's Peugeot 206 XS exiting Pauillac (moderne). |
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| The nineteenth placed Citroen C2 R2 of Aurélien and Laetitia Pion (moderne). |
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| The Peugeot 208 of Mickael Lecourt (modern) |
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| The Alfa Romeo 75 of Bruno Guillon and Lionel Rataud between Saint Corbian and Pez (moderne). |
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| The Renault Clio of Francois Hirogoyen passes Chateau les Ormes de Pez (moderne). |
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| The Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX of Grégory Denie in Pez (moderne). |
By the time we found the Ordonnac stage the Regularity cars were making their way through.
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| The Opel Manta GTE of Jean-Jacques Bossay speeds through Ordonnac on its way to 7th place in the VHRS rally. |
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| An Opel Kadett Rallye driven by Jean-Francois Quintard (VHRS). |
We saw some of the cars again as we were on our way to dinner!
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| The Subaru Impreza STi N12 of Stéphane Guilloteau races through the night into 38th place (moderne). |
Thanks to the ASACSO for organising such a great event in December when so little else is happening. It meant I managed to get to a motoring event every month in 2015.
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.
For a daily posing of a fast car, visit my new blog Auto Vitesse by clicking here.
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