5-5 – Rallye des Ardennes – Rallye des Ardennes: a final in style! – Step 2: at night and it’s over!

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Rallye des Ardennes: a final in style !

5-5 - Rallye des Ardennes - Rallye des Ardennes: a final in style! - Step 2: at night and it's over!

The battle for the 2018 French road rally championship was heated until the end between two Aprilia 1100 Tuono: despite his victory at the Rallye des Ardennes, Bruno Schiltz must bow to the relentless Julien Toniutti for the title of champion of France 2018… Story.

Step 2: at night and it’s over !

The second stage of the 23rd Ardennes rally, at night, will not change the course of things. Even if Bruno Schiltz still takes the stage victory by finishing second, Julien Toniutti has a smile and keeps the pole with 5 points ahead of the JMP Racing driver, .

5-5 - Rallye des Ardennes - Rallye des Ardennes: a final in style! - Step 2: at night and it's over!

5-5 - Rallye des Ardennes - Rallye des Ardennes: a final in style! - Step 2: at night and it's over!

Julien Toniutti thus won his fifth title of champion of France Scratch. A well-deserved title after an eventful championship to say the least, until this last stage where nothing was certain yet: "I knew that in any case anything could happen, nothing is won until you have returned your time card ", Julien admits to MNC.

"By finishing the Dakar, I would have achieved my goals"

"There I was wary of the temperature because it was cold", continues the pilot. "Knowing my tires and their different warm-up times depending on the model, I preferred to ensure with tires that heat up quickly in case there are waiting times at the start of the stages, but during the prologue lap, Seeing that it could very well do with racing tires (road approved of course, Editor’s note), I wanted to replace my Road 5 which, although excellent road tires, would perhaps support hard driving less well than racing tires. .. The problem is that the assistance time having been shortened in order to re-stick correctly to the initial program following a delay at the start, I was not able to make this change as I had planned. It did it anyway! On the other hand nothing was won in advance and the challenge was interesting because Bruno and I were on identical motorcycles … The difference was made with the tires and the driving, and that I loved !"

5-5 - Rallye des Ardennes - Rallye des Ardennes: a final in style! - Step 2: at night and it's over!

Julien Toniutti concludes by noting that "so far, I have achieved the objectives that I had set myself this year:, selected for the and champion of France of the rallies 2018! I just have to finish the Dakar and I would have achieved all my goals "…

"5 points missing at the end of the season"

For his part, Bruno Schiltz is delighted to "crown this 2018 season in the French Road Rally Championship with another victory at the Rallye des Ardennes, my third success in a row after Dourdou and Ardèche. Attack directly to win and deepen the race. ‘gap, that was the watchword for the Rallye des Ardennes, final of the French Road Rally Championship. I start scratching on the first two passages of the day. The tone was set for the weekend in the Ardennes! With four victories in the specials on the daytime stage, I am ahead of my main rival in the championship by more than 10 seconds ".

5-5 - Rallye des Ardennes - Rallye des Ardennes: a final in style! - Step 2: at night and it's over!

"The fight for victory on the night stage was much closer with colder and wetter weather," continues Bruno. "By giving my all during the tenth and last special of this Rallye des Ardennes, I also won the night stage with more than 3 seconds over the competition. With six specials out of ten on this Rallye des Ardennes, I won ‘imposes on the day and night stages of this final. This third success in a row crowns a very good season with three victories on the five rallies this season and without ever getting off the podium since I finished 2nd in the Sarthe and in the ‘Ain. My successful return to the Aprilia Tuono V4 1100 Factory required some adjustments at the start of the season which cost me the 5 missing points at the end of the season to keep the French road rally champion title. Of course, nothing would have happened. was possible without loyal partners. I thank them all for their support for this 2018 season ".

In the categories, the leaders have confirmed their places: Richard Pigeat will indeed lead his Suzuki GS 1000 S to the title of French Champion of the Anciennes 2018 while Johan Daval will confirm his title in Classics on his Honda 600.

5-5 - Rallye des Ardennes - Rallye des Ardennes: a final in style! - Step 2: at night and it's over!

The French Rallye 3 champion 2018 is awarded to Fabrice Dion (KTM 390 Duke), Rallye 2 is validated for Romain Cauquil (KTM 690 Duke CTM83) and Rallye 1 returns as it should to Kevin Cheylan (Ducati Hypermotard 937) despite a superb race by his main competitor Maxime David (Kawasaki ZX-6), who won first place in Rallye 1 on this Rallye des Ardennes by finishing in sixth place in general Scratch (Kevin, 2nd Rallye 1 of this event, will be classified 8th in Scratch).

With his title of Scratch champion, Julien Toniutti also won the Maxi Rallye SW Motech title, certainly by one point, but ahead of Bruno Schiltz. What now clearly makes him pass in front of the illustrious and no less legendary Marc Troussard as record holder for the titles of French rally champion (4 times scratch and 6 times in categories for myself, 5 times scratch and 5 times in categories for Julien, a record that had still not been broken since the last century) !

Our 2018 French rally champion Julien Toniutti now only has to concentrate on his participation in the next Dakar (in South America) … For my part, I would particularly like to thank Pierre Derrien, member of the rally committee , always present on the events, who was the faithful correspondent of MNC throughout the season and thanks to whom we were able to transcribe as well as possible all the events of the 2018 championship.

Big V to you readers, be careful on the road and see you soon: stay tuned !

Marcus HIMSELF

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