First rally 2013: Julien Toniutti, As des Garrigues !
Let’s go for the rally season! A start to the French championship which looks rather well for the site and official KTM France pilot, Julien Toniutti, who wins his first race of the year riding a KTM 990 SMT. Report
Gas in the scrubland !
The "felt" temperature must be around "- 8000 ° C" at 10 am this morning, while the first competitors take the start. That’s it, the 2013 French road rally championship is launched !
The route is technical and super fun! Route all in the road-book, without signs: you have to be attentive to the indications of the road-book because of the many intersections to cross the scrubland and join Montesquieu for the first special … 2 km super technical with fast, brittle, pins … in short, a real rally special !
From the outset, the KTM 990 SMT of the "postman" Toniutti announces the flush and slams the best time in 1 ‘38.69. Good performance for a lap on a special where we could not make our marks on a motorcycle … The second fastest time goes to the Corsican rider of JMP Racing Christophe Velardi on Ducati 1200 Multistrada in 1 ‘39.11.
The absence of direct competitors in the first places such as Bruno Langlois or other Paul Christian Piazza does not necessarily protect Julien Toniutti from other more or less well-known top drivers: Bruno Schiltz for example obtains the third time in 1 ’39 , 50. The gaps are minimal, the battle promises to be tough !
For my part, the unique Yamaha 1200 XTZ Super Tenere in this event reassures me of my 2013 choice: 14th time in 1 ‘46.06! Two tenths ahead of the excellent Corsican rider Thierry Canazzi riding his KTM 400 EXC, the Elite rider who will “atomize” his opponents in the Sport category.
It is therefore confirmed, my Yamaha 1200 XTZ Super Tenere "Yam Service" is quite up to the competition for Elite places (the 20 best on the grid)! It will prove it to me on all the stages and on the road course of this rally: pleasant, light to drive, reassuring … in short, a Superbike !
The link leading to Neffies, for the second special, is only 17 km long, but the road taken is very technical. Narrow and winding, it is difficult to keep a very high average. Fortunately the time allotted for this section is 22 minutes !
Four or five pilots will be late at the time control of the second special, but almost all of the field is on time. The Garrigues rally is not limited to a simple health walk: it is a real good rally !
The Neffies special is radically different from that of Montesquieu. Very fast, with a billiard-like coating but sinuous with large blind curves. The "no recce by motorbike" will be a serious handicap !
Here it is Bruno Shiltz’s Suzuki 750 GSX-R which wins: 2 ‘06.32, more than eight tenths in front of a local driver, outside the championship, but used to rallies – we remember in particular his remarkable tenth place at the last Dark Dog Moto Tour -: Jeremy Poncet, riding a KTM 990 Superduke. The third time is signed by the Ducati 1200 Multistrada of Christophe Velardi (2 ‘09.88).
Our postman and MNC driver, Julien Toniutti only obtained sixth time here, more than 5 seconds from the Scratch. He lacks confidence in the stability of his machine when braking hard when entering bends: the KTM 990 SMT is not a track bike after all. !
On the side cars side, too, things get better, especially for the crew of the Amblard brothers, Alain and Olivier, then more than 18 seconds from the fastest time. At the controls of their vintage Choda 1100 Kawasaki coupling (the same as last year), they are less than 4 tenths ahead of the second sidecar, the Marty / Boudier crew on Voxan 996.
Once this first passage in the two specials, it is an always so pleasant and exotic course which leads us quickly (about twenty minutes later) to the assistance point installed in the parking lot of the Intermarche de Clermont l ‘ Herault.
Thirty-five minutes break is given to the pilots, time to eat a little and refuel … but also to tell each other a little about this first section! Old man’s discussion about my Yamaha 1200 Super Tenere performance: "I had already told you Alain, during the Tunisia Rally Tour, that you would morfler in the 2013 championship if I drove with this fabulous machine…". Alain Fratini, 2012 veteran French champion, and his Aprilia 1000 Tuono number 110 are under pressure !
Marcus HIMSELF – Photos MH, Wilfried MARCON and Cedric HOUZET
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