Rouen-les-AFX: Citroën

Wednesday, 29 May 2024

60ème Course de Côte de La Pommeraye - Voitures de Production - 2024

The winner in the Production car category and in the GTTS group was this BMW M3 E92 driven by Yannick Poinsignon.

La Pommeraye was celebrating it's 60th Course de Cote this year. I was there on Saturday for the practice and first timed run. The first cars off were the production cars that you see in this blogpost. This was the fifth round of the Championnats de France de la Montagne - the French hillclimb championship. The fastest cars in the category are the GTTS cars (various GT Cup, sSpercars, Silhouette Touring Cars and Mitjets). Yannick Poinsignon has been dominating this category this year in his BMW and looks likely to defend his 2023 title.

Also running in this category are the groups A, FA, N, FN, F2000 and the crowd pleasing FC cars (old Simcas etc). Examples of all the categories are shown below.

A Citroen Saxo Kit Car making its ascent.

The first car to leave the start line on the first timed run of the 60th running of the Course de Côte de La Pommeraye was this Renault Megane.

The rest of the top ten and winners of their group can be seen below, along with a number of the other runners.:

Second was Anthony Dubois in this Alpine A110 Evo. He drove well on Saturday and was fastest in practice.

Third was this Porsche 991 GT3 Cup of Jean-Francois Ganevat who also won the 2nd division.

Fourth was this Porsche 991 GT3 Cup driven by Jean-Marc Gandolfo.

Fifth production car and winner of Group A was this Seat Leon Supercopa Mk3 of Sébastien Lemaire.

Sixth production car and winner of Group FC was this wonderful Simca CG Turbo of Christophe Poinsignon

Seventh production car this Simca Rallye III of Romain Richardeau.

Eighth production car was this Seat Leon Supercopa Mk3 of Francis Dosieres.

Ninth production car was this Volvo Touring Cup TC10 of Julien Dupont.

Tenth production car and winner of the GT group was this Porsche 997 GT3 RS of Alexandre Garnier.

Twelfth production car and winner of the F2000 group was this Honda Civic EP3 Type R of Ferdinand Loton.

Thirteenth production car and winner of Group FN and the Ladies Cup was this BMW M3 E36 of Morane Cat Mackowiak.

Eighteenth production car and second in the GT group was this Alpine A110 Cup of Yann Durieux.

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.

The Renault RS01 of Philippe Schmitter seen here on the first practice run where he was fastest. However, he was later disqualified from the timed runs for not wearing his fireproof socks! Otherwise he would have been on the podium.

A Honda Civic EK4 flashes by.

A Peugeot 205 GTi.

A Peugeot 106 S16.

A Renault Mégane 3 RS.

Citroën Saxo Cup.

Renault Clio 3 Cup.

Lotus Exige Cup 260.

Simca Rallye II.

Simca 1000 Turbo.

Nissan 370Z.

Waiting for the start.

Tuesday, 26 March 2024

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.