Road rallies – 51st Rallye de la Sarthe: the battle of the leaders –

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51st Rallye de la Sarthe: the battle of the chefs

Road rallies - 51st Rallye de la Sarthe: the battle of the leaders -

The 51st Rallye de la Sarthe was a superb opening round of the 2008 championship, with a merciless tussle between the two tenors of the discipline: Serge Nuques "Zalduna Nuke" and Emmanuel Siaux, the size of the TRC Police. Report and videos.

The two tenors of the discipline, Serge Nuques "Zalduna Nuke", alias the Basque-Grolandais knight, and Emmanuel Siaux, the size of the TRC (Team Rallye Competition Police), engaged in a mano a mano this weekend, but the raises the tip of his nose and new names are likely to register very quickly at the top of the rankings ….

Finally a flawless rally! The new transponder timing systems will have taken three years to develop, but this time it is! Nothing to say: the times are reliable and the times are well displayed at the end of the stages…

But before doing battle with the lap times, it would have been a shame to skip the previous days, those of reconnaissance, where everyone finds themselves armed with their new gear … We rediscover the places we love and it’s true that Sarthe under the sun, it’s even nicer !

Friendly welcome also from the natives: the filthy separatist knight Serge Nuques even finds himself at the inhabitant, at the table of a pure Sarthois and no less biker at heart: Claude Burson, former international sidecar cross pilot … Thank you again for your welcome, Claude !

Today, we notice much less jostling in recce: the regulations are strict and for the good of everyone – especially for the residents and for the survival of the road rally -, it is important not to "file" non stop and to take care to limit the passages: six are officially authorized, but as it is difficult to verify the exact number of passages, the organizers still trust the pilots … Most of them respect the rule, and that‘s good !

Of course, we regret the time in the past when we spent the day recognizing the same special, meeting all together for mini fights going up like bargeots, but hey, we have to be reasonable: the traffic on the roads is not going well. not decreasing, you have to adapt…

The occasion also for some to introduce new machines: Thierry Canazzi returns to the "Sport" category with a KTM 400 EXC, Marc Granier drives a Ducati 848, Jerôme Argoud, winner of the 2007 Espoir Cup, a Yamaha FZ6, Nick Ayrton , the Englishman of the gang (but Sarthois body and soul!) is riding a Buell XB12STT – will he compete with Manu Siaux? -, Nicolas Derrien, 3rd "Sport" 2007, has found a Honda 600 Hornet to come and play with the "Topsport", etc. In short, things move in a rally !

Friday afternoon: technical checks

Usually, we spend nearly three hours in the queue of controls waiting for their turn … But this year, the organizers (well done to ASCOP and ASMACO) have thought about making the queue more fluid: two queues are set up and the flow suffers !

Florent Parret is also sporting a new machine, but the commissioner still uses his superb 2008 Yamaha R6 with a fine-tooth comb … Approved tires, braking of the oil circuits, pure water in the cooling … everything is ok !

The runners’ fleet of the rallye de la Sarthe fills up just as much every year. And it is among all these motorcycles with white number plates that this year we can more easily distinguish the machines of the best pilots: they stand out with yellow number plates, according to the decision taken by the rally commission at the last congress. of the FFM: after the launch of the "Hope Cup" for the "newbies" in 2007, the old and new coupons are called "Elite" and differentiated by yellow plates.

The "Elite" distinction concerns the first 20 of the scratch classification of the previous year, plus ten places reserved for well-known drivers. There can therefore be a maximum of 30 yellow plates at each rally and they are the ones who take the first starts..

At 9:00 p.m., 145 of the 146 starting pilots had passed the checks! The latecomer was none other than Nick Ayrton, who with his British phlegm only showed up half an hour late! Fortunately Sergei was there to help him stick his number plates…

Saturday 7:30 am: departure for the Bugatti !

The "Zalduna Nuke" is determined. His strategy is simple: plaster everyone on the four laps of the circuit, to be able to wind up quietly in the specials and win the race. !

The sinister character confides moreover without ambiguity his intentions to Site: "if I put 20 seconds in second, there are six stages left. 6 times 3 = 18, so I can relax by three seconds per special and I’m still ahead !", he explains, confident…

Everything was going to be played out at the Bugatti! A few minutes before the start of the first series, the tension mounts but the smiles nonetheless remain on the lips: we are in a rally !

As expected, Serge Nuques atomizes everyone (in the Elite series) by completing the four laps of the circuit in 7’44.821. Almost 25 seconds behind, we find Marc Granier riding his Ducati 848 and Florent Parret on his Yamaha R6 in the same second (8’09.677 and 8’09.781). Then come Emmanuel Siaux (8’10.554) and Nico Derrien (8’13.308).

The Chevalier‘s victory will not surprise anyone (see our video interview with Florent Parret after his great performance!), But the intrusion of a "new kid" in the middle of the leading pack suggests that there can always be surprises: the best time of the "Topsport" series is only 16 seconds from Serge Nuques: David Magnan of Moto Club Lamballais, at the controls of a Triumph 675 Street Triple and of which the 2008 edition of the Sarthe is the very first rally, proves particularly promising !

Special !

A relatively short road course of around forty kilometers then takes the pilots on the only road special of the morning. This year, the route is divided into three loops: one in the morning, one in the afternoon with two specials and one at night with a lap of the Bugatti upside down and two passages in the Coulans-sur special as time trial. -Gee, a journey of about 300 km in total)…

And there the chef is Manu! Emmanuel Siaux had the best time (1’30.162) with three tenths ahead of Serge Nuques … but there again with a newbie in the middle: Julien Toniutti riding a KTM 990 Superduke in 1’30.529! This young 26-year-old from Lyon has not finished wowing us! He caught the virus by participating in his first rally during the last Beaujolais, where he allowed himself times among the best of the scratch … Tractations and knowledge led him to inherit from KTM the ex-machine by Christian Haquin: only promising !

Lunch break !

The advantage of this "morning-afternoon-evening" running scheme is that it allows you to eat almost normally at noon … nice! But it is also an opportunity for some to deal with (or not!) The first little worries of the weekend…

"It’s the job that comes in", drop some regulars to console Florent Derrien, the youngest of the Derrien family at the height of his 18 years, after his small fall in liaison, fortunately not serious…

No luck either on the side of the classics: engine failure at the Bugatti for Guy Marchand and his inseparable Honda 750 Four. Second in his category in 2007, he set out to win this year … but the championship is still long Guy, courage !

Time is spoiling…

In the afternoon loop, nothing changes for Emmanuel Siaux, who still has the best time on the specials. Too bad for Toniutti: he suffered a nice downpour at the end of the afternoon (with his number 123, he left far behind the Elite …), which will cause his time to plummet…

Serge Nuques continues to respect the market chart he had set himself and manages his lead, with times that remain within the range that his lead allows him..

In the classification of the day stage, we therefore find Sergeï the untouchable, followed by Emmanuel Siaux still at 20 seconds and Nicolas Derrien: the youngster who is progressing by leaps and bounds has perfectly succeeded in his passage in the "Topsport" category. !

Night loop

Manu, still Manu, still Manu? Not quite: Emmanuel Siaux won the first of the three specials, that of Coulans-sur-Gee, but the second (a solo lap on the Bugatti "upside down") was torn off by the Zalduna determined to show who was the master, while the last is won by Julien Toniutti.

In the classification of the night stage, Emmanuel Siaux is ahead of Julien Toniutti, while Serge Nuques the manager finds himself in third place…

The podiums

In the final classification of the rally calculated on the day / night total, it is therefore Serge Nuques who carries his Yamaha R6 at the top of the classification ahead of Emmanuel Siaux on Buell XB12STT and … Nicolas Derrien on Honda 600 Hornet.

In the provisional classification of the championship, the points being allocated separately for the day and for the night, it is Emmanuel Siaux (2nd by day and 1st at night) who takes the lead of the provisional ahead of Serge Nuques (1st and 3rd).

Julien Toniutti won the Espoir Cup but only finished 9th scratch, because of his 15th place in the day stage, after having to run the last special in the wet.

In "Mono", we find Alain Amblard in first place on the handlebars of his 2007 KTM 660 SMC (14th overall) ahead of Benoît Salzar on his KTM 690 Duke and Dominique Parayre on his KTM 625 SMC.

Emotion sequence…

During the awards ceremony, Herve Joseph, the team manager of the TRC CMPN, took the microphone to announce the trophy founded by his team in tribute to Thomas Laroche, who suddenly died last year (read).

This trophy, which is intended for the best "scratcheur" of the special, returned for the rally of Sarthe to Emmanuel Siaux. And it is with intense emotion that Manu received the trophy which will be put back into play at each rally … You are still with us Thomas !

In the "Sport" category, Tony Chereau takes down the timpani on a Kawasaki 650 ER6 in front of Didier Beneston on Suzuki 650 SV and Patrick Cosnuau on Kawasaki 650 ER6.

In "Classic", Jean-Pierre Pelissou on Honda 600 XLR, Luc Martin on BMW R80 GS and Robert Degaudez at the controls of a Honda 600 XLR as during his years of glory, at the beginning of the 80s when he had been titled Champion of France Scratch !

In "Side-cars", Laurent Guillet and David Chanal, the reigning champions of the category, lead their side Choda 1000 GSXR at the head of the category followed by the Herve Laur / Marie-Laure Ferrieu crew at the controls of their Choda 1300 GSXR and de Lebert / Camus on their Yamaha 1100FJ.

So here is the French rally championship launched with new faces and increasingly tight gaps … The 2008 vintage promises to be fascinating and promises great battles! See you in Corsica on the 26th and 27th for the second round … Stay connected !

Marcus HIMSELF

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