Road rallies – First Rally of Corsica: the race for independence! –

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First Corsican Rally: the independence race !

Road rallies - First Rally of Corsica: the race for independence! -

The Basque-Grolandais knight, on his Yamaha 450 WRF dressed for the occasion in the colors of the Basque Country, reigned supreme over the first Rally of Corsica, the second round of the French road rally championship. Balance sheet.

The resumption of the Rally of Corsica, this weekend in the Gulf of Ajaccio, was the opportunity to experience a magnificent event organized by the RMC Corsica. The second round of the 2007 French road rally championship allowed the 134 entrants to discover superb twisty roads, which the Basque knight courageously conquered with his bladed weapon with a single cylinder! "Nice fight with angry Corsicans whose I came out victorious", summarizes the Knight – Zalduna in Basque – the day after the test:"I also take the lead in the championship because the French people have had more trouble in Corsican territory … Beautiful operation, beautiful representation and banzaï !"

New victory therefore for Serge Nuques after a fierce battle against an excellent island rider, Laurent Statuto, ex-Monobike rider, French champion in the discipline in 2002 and third in 2006.

"This is my very first rally, it happened in Corsica, so much the better, it’s nice to have a great race at home !", explains Laurent, satisfied despite his second place and proud of the 10th scratch position of his" compatriot "Stephane Ricchiarelli – also on a Yamaha 450 WRF but completely original, large wheels included !

But like an ignoble Basque-Groland terrorist, Sergei had come to win in the name of his native country, because Groland is only his adopted country and the Knight does not forget his roots. !

"The Corsicans display their colors when they come to the continent and they are right to do so, so I decided to do the same with them so that we know who is who !", proudly declares the valiant Knight in his usual grolando-basco-joking tone..

In the meantime, the villainous character takes the lead in the championship ahead of Emmanuel Siaux, the Buell driver of the CMPN … The title will be very expensive this year. !

Day stage

Departure at 10 am on Saturday morning, under the sun, for two passages of a 100 km loop with two special stages: Tassinca and Guarguale (respectively 4.8 km and 3.5 km).

Two very technical stages – even dangerous due to their degraded condition – but above all long descending lines allowing relatively high speeds to be reached.

From the first special, first crash: Jean Baptiste Dusserre on a Kawasaki ZX10 makes a mistake, fortunately without too much gravity. The progress of the test is slowed down but the express intervention of a helicopter to evacuate the injured person limits the delay to less than an hour.

The road course is splendid and varied with very damaged roads in places but also a magnificent descent to Porticcio: a real billiards table !

In the first lap, Corsica is in the spotlight: 2’42 for Laurent Statuto in the first special, nearly three seconds ahead of his pursuer Philippe Richelmi (back for a tour of the rallymen).

Laurent even slammed a 2’15 of very good size in the second special at Guarguale, more than two seconds this time in front of a courageous Thomas Laroche gritting his teeth to ride despite his injury (pinching of the vertebrae) following his fall in recce on Wednesday evening (read).

As for Serge Nuques, he takes advantage of this first lap to validate his benchmarks taken in recce the previous days: he goes from sixth time in the first to fourth in the second, then to second time during the second passage in the first before scratching the last special of this day. The Grolando-Basque knight struck very hard !

But Thomas Laroche does not lower his guard easily and even manages to hang a better time less than a second behind the Chevalier in the Guarguale special on the second pass: 2’16.273 for Serge and 2’17.015 for Thomas.

In the scratch classification of the day stage, we therefore find Laurent Statuto in the lead ahead of Serge Nuques and Thomas Laroche. The leader of the provisional championship classification, Emmanuel Siaux, then found himself in fourth position. Nice performance all the same as leading his Buell XB12STT to only three seconds (cumulative time) from a podium of Monos, much more suited to this type of special.

Further in the standings, the pilots suffered a downpour which severely – no pun intended – their end of the day, which did not prevent an island pilot, Jean-François Monti, from placing his Suzuki 650 SV at the head of the race. category "Sport" and in 9th scratch place of the day !

We’re not joking around either: Gerard Rolland on his Yamaha 350 RDLC, although in 79th place in the daytime scratch, takes command of a band of supercharged classics! The battle rages on all levels and the drivers are all motivated, like Luc Martin at the start of the Tassinca special on his antique BMW R80 GS.

Back in Porticcio at nightfall, the pilots repair the small breakages of the day. Thus Thierry Canazzi, victim of a recalcitrant clutch on his Aprilia 550 SXV from the start, launches his mechanics to attack the problem…

After this mechanical break, the headlights are on and the pilots rested: action for the night special! And action, there will be…

Night stage

The night had started well: the Chevalier, perched on his splendid Yamaha 450 WRF in the colors of the Basque Country armed with his additional Xenon System headlights, lined up the scratches, followed by Laurent Statuto (who quickly learns how a rally works!) in battle with Thomas Laroche, Emmanuel Siaux and Thierry Canazzi, not to mention the defending champion, Greg Debize, who is slowly rising in the rankings in the accounts of the first night round…

In the second lap, small problem in the first special: the opener car would have spilled a fatty liquid (oil? Coolant?) Observed by Greg who claims to have "dangerously lost front"in a bend.

"There is just a little at the place of the passage next to the tanks on the top shelf", assures me the director of the special just before my departure … Sympathetic information, because the place thus described is right there where it passes very quickly in a row…

The so-called oil stain not alarming the commissioners any more, my departure is given … Suffice to say that I squeezed my buttocks a little while passing to the place indicated, but hey, it’s over! On the other hand, it is not a simple oil stain that I discovered but quite a trail on all the rest of the special! Crossing and crossing the track, I tried as best I could to make a time until the hairpin before the finish … But the heavy braking required by the said hairpin, the stress of the race and the nervousness of me. being missed in a lot of places because of this trace of oil made me put a big blow of gas to exit strong and pass the cell in full charge !

Oil or other greasy liquid, I don’t know, but the motorbike left straight away, hanging up violently to throw me to the ground … A second before the fall.

Motorcycle assessment: the two Xenons farted, the fork a little twisted (provided the tubes are not twisted!), The bubble torn off and the handlebars twisted … Pilot assessment: big sprained wrist and various and varied bruises … Nothing too bad, I should be able to be at the Rallye du Beaujolais…

This is not the case for Thomas Laroche, who fell in the last special of the night stage, got back on the 450 WR and crossed the finish line … with a badly fractured collarbone! He finished the race despite everything – remarkable! – but his fracture will put him out of the race for several months … We will not see him after the championship or in Belgium! Courage Thomas, keep your spirits up! When you return you will be a hit !

There was also a big fall in the last special for Greg Debize, who lost consciousness and had to be evacuated to the hospital … But more fear than harm, because he was finally on his feet a few hours later.

At the end of the night stage, it is again the ignoble independence from Grolandais who wins hands down, 15 seconds ahead of the local Laurent Statuto! Thierry Canazzi finished third.

Final result

Serge Nuques therefore won this event – one more on his record – but he still had to seriously spit in his hands to overcome the excellent Laurent Statuto. Laurent does not participate in the championship in its entirety, but begins to be tempted by a possible participation in a future Dark Dog Moto Tour … !

As for the sidecars, the Laurent Guillet / David Chanal crew still raged with their Hechard side, ensuring a good atmosphere on the podium…

First in the provisional classification of the Espoir Cup, Jerôme Argoud of the CMPN riding his Yamaha FZ1 widens the gap with the second, Cedric Parmentier of the Guidons Vellaves, on a Yamaha R1.

Finally, let’s greet the organizers for a grandiose prize-giving, at the end of the afternoon, with a cold buffet and unlimited drinks … that’s good manners !

But all good things come to an end, unfortunately we have to get back into the boat … It was a very nice rally with a few small details to review, but the main thing is there and we strongly recommend the tour of Corsica! We hope that Thierry Canazzi succeeds in motivating Jean-Mathieu Padovani, the organizer of this Corsican rally !

In the meantime, we’ll meet again in two weeks for the rest of the championship with the Beaujolais rally … Stay tuned !

Scratch day

  1. Statuto Laurent, Yamaha 450 WRF, in 9: 31.410

  2. Nuques Serge, Yamaha 450 WRF, in 10: 05.748

  3. Laroche Thomas, Yamaha 450 WRF, in 10: 07.568

  4. Siaux Emmanuel, Buell 1200 XB12STT, in 10: 10.687

  5. Canazzi Thierry, Aprilia 550 SXV in 10: 13.036

  6. Debize Gregory, Aprilia 1000 Tuono in 10: 20.108

  7. Amblard Alain, KTM 660 CMS, in 10: 22.613

  8. Richelmi Philippe, Aprilia 1000 RSV, in 10: 28.741

  9. Monti Jean François, Suzuki 650 SV, in 10: 29.539

  10. Parret Florent, BMW 1200 HP2, in 10: 39.013
    ….

Scratch night

  1. Nuques Serge, Yamaha 450 WRF, in 7: 31.410

  2. Statuto Laurent, Yamaha 450 WRF, in 7: 46.354

  3. Canazzi Thierry, Aprilia 550 SXV, in 7: 56.766

  4. Siaux Emmanuel, Buell 1200 XB12STT, in 7: 58.580

  5. Amblard Alain, KTM 660 CMS, in 8: 05.952

  6. Laroche Thomas, Yamaha 450 WRF, in 8: 07.692

  7. Franceschi Frederic, KTM 990 Super Duke, in 8: 13.351

  8. Ricchiarelli Stephane, Yamaha 450 WRF, in 8: 18.233

  9. Demaria Eric, KTM 950 Supermoto, in 8: 19.691

  10. Marchini Michel, Yamaha 500 T-Max, in 8: 20.732
    …

Final scratch classification of the Rallye de Corse

  1. NUQUES Serge (MONO) CF MC PAU ARNOS YAMAHA 450 WRF 17: 37,2

  2. STATUTO Laurent (MONO) HCF RMC CORSICA YAMAHA 450 WRF 17: 45,4

  3. SIAUX Emmanuel (TOP SPORT) CF CMPN MPLR BUELL 1200 XB12STT 18: 09.3

  4. CANAZZI Thierry (TOP SPORT) CF MC VERO APRILIA 550 SXV 18: 09.8

  5. LAROCHE Thomas (MONO) CF CMPN PACA YAMAHA 450 WRF 18: 15.3

  6. AMBLARD Alain (MONO) CFMC DAUPHINOIS KTM 660 CMS 18: 28.6

  7. MONTI Jean Francois (SPORT) CF MC BIGUGLIA SUZUKI 650 SV 18: 56.5

  8. PARRET Florent (TOP SPORT) CF CMPN R2A BMW 1200 HP2 19: 01.6

  9. FRANCESCHI Frederic (TOP SPORT) HCF RMC CORSICA KTM 990 SUPER DUKE 19: 07,3

  10. RICCHIARELLI Stephane (MONO) HCF RMC CORSICA YAMAHA 450 WRF 19: 09,0

Marcus HIMSELF – Photos MH and Patrick LEROYER

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