5ème Rallye VHC du Medoc, 2019

The winning Lancia Delta Integrale of Johann Hayet & Kevin Boisson about to set off for the Saturday night stages.

For this second post on the recent Rallye du Médoc, I will cover the Véhicules Historiques de Compétition or VHC for short.   There were only nine VHC cars that turned up for this for this event but they were a nice mixture of seventies, eighties and early nineties rally cars.  They took part in six special stages, two on Saturday night, two on Sunday morning and two on Sunday afternoon.  In total the stage length was about 40 kilometres and in addition they had about another 100 kilometres to do on the road.

The Ford Sierra Cosworth of Dominique Castera and Vincent Pralon that was originally classified second.

It was good to hear, when reading "News Classic Racing" that there was a great sporting attitude in this event as the Ford Sierra Cosworth team of Dominique Castera and Vincent Pralon, that was originally placed second, gave up their podium position as they didn’t believe they had really achieved the times they were credited with.  Rare to see such sportsmanship nowadays in a competitive event.  Chapeau!

The VHC cars line up in the Parc Fermé beneath the church in Lesparre-Médoc.

I took the opportunity to see the VHC cars at the scrutineering, in the Parc Fermé, leaving on Saturday night for the night stages and on the road the day after. As there were so few competitors, pictures of all of them are featured below in this blog post.  Although, it is not easy to take pictures at night, I was happy with the results.

1st. No.205.  Lancia Delta Integrale - Jacques Suire & Eric Canac.

The top two VHC cars including the winning Lancia on the left and runner-up BMW on the right.

2nd. No.206.  BMW 323i Alpina - Matthieu Cormier & Thomas Petit.

This BMW eventually took second place on the podium.

3rd.  No.204.  BMW323i - Lucas Mathieu & Marion Methieu.

The third placed BMW.

4th. No.202.  Talbot Sunbeam Lotus - Bernard Dees & Daniel Mirambeau.

The Talbot Sunbeam Lotus setting out for the night stages.

5th. No.208.  Lancia Delta integrale - Jacques Suire & Eric Canac.

Lancia exiting the Parc Fermé to start the rally.

The other cars:

The first car to set off on the rally - The Ford Escort RS1600 of Tabaud & Cogne.

The Renault 5 GT Turbo of Faure & Mandelli.

The Ford Sierra Cosworth 4X4 in the verifications tent.

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.

The Ford Sierra Cosworth ready for the night stages.

The Talbot Sunbeam Lotus.

The second placed BMW accelerating away from the control.