Road rallies – First road racing championship in Tunisia – The race experienced from the inside

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First road racing championship in Tunisia

Road rallies - First road racing championship in Tunisia - The race experienced from the inside

The first round of the Tunisian road racing championship 2014 took place in Tataouine on January 12 and 13, in a setting as lunar as it is exceptional. A test carried out with the strength of the wrist by a sympathetic band of enthusiasts… Story.

The race lived from the inside

The race takes place over two days. Race HQ, parc ferme and pilot park being based in the grounds of the Hotel Sangho in Tataouine (where everyone is also accommodated), the event will take place over several loops.

  • Sunday 12th: road rally! Two passages are planned in the morning in the special of Oued El Khil (3.3 km, already taken during the Tunisian Rally Tour 2012). About 110 km for the first link between Tataouine and Oued El Khil, then a small loop of around thirty kilometers brings us back to the special for a second passage. A link of about forty kilometers then takes us back to Tataouine.

  • One hour of meal time

  • A unique loop of around 160 km in the afternoon with a single passage in the Oued El Khil special.

  • Monday 13: hill climb. Departure by convoy at 8 am for the coast in question located 30km from the hotel (in El Argoub).

  • Four climbs are planned: The first not timed for recognition, then a first chrono climb which will define the starting order of the race climbs, followed by two chrono climbs, the average of which will establish the classification..

  • Return to the hotel by convoy.

Let the party begin !

Sunday morning, 8:30 am: rally

As punctual as for a stage start of the Dark Dog Moto Tour, everyone is in place at the time scheduled for the start of this great national event..

National television interviews the defending champion, Bessem Techini, as well as our champion, Julien Toniutti, as guest of honor for a live broadcast on small screens all over Tunisia !

The road course is rather nice. After moving away from the city of Tataouine, we cross more than picturesque villages in a breathtaking setting with the five French pilots that we are, not used to these spaces as wild as they are grandiose….

The road-book is well done but lacks a little precision, especially at the level of the partial distances established with a motorcycle computer and not with the GPS. But there aren’t many intersections and the route is relatively easy to follow..

The link times are calculated for an average of 60 km / h, the road is rather good, but you still have to remain attentive to the unevenness of the surface and to the few patches of diesel which can surprise !

110 km to join the special, that will do it! Even for Julien Toniutti’s KTM 500 EXC and its … 110 km of autonomy! Fortunately, Dominique Quintin’s Honda 500 CB consumes nothing: Julien will be able to take advantage of his gift for siphoning and complete the first loop. !

Bad luck on the other hand for Alain Frattini, whose Aprilia Mana did not tolerate a hole in an unpaved passage: broken silencer support! Alain patched it up with a piece of strap, but the makeshift repair weakened the exhaust manifold at the level of the flange at the cylinder head outlet and the pot shears clean a few kilometers later…

The adventure therefore only lasted about sixty kilometers for Alain Frattini who joined Tataouine and gave up..

About ten kilometers after the village of Oued El Khil, here we are at the special. The marshals are in place at Time Control (CH) and it is Eric Serenne, director of the special, who gives the starts.

The Tunisian number one, Bessem Techini, sets off on the handlebars of his Yamaha FZ8, for a stopwatch this time.

The special is superb, clean and rather quick with a few blind turns to be negotiated to stay on the road … Big heart is compulsory to get a stopwatch, but the race marshals are in place and the special is properly secured.

Fifth time here for Bessem, second Tunisian behind the Honda CB 1000 R of Walid Ben Alaya (2’11.73 against 2’15.73 the first three "absolute" places being occupied by the three best remaining French drivers: scratch for the KTM 500 EXC of Julien Toniutti (who said "normal"?) In 1’54.10, second place for the Yamaha MT09 of Marc Troussard (2’02.28) who discovers the qualities of his new bike, and third place for the KTM 690 Duke R of Karine Slitz in 2’08.92.

The other Tunisian participants discover the joys of the closed timed road and have a blast! Rallying can be learned, it does not come straight away, but you get used to it very quickly and given the determination of most of the competitors, there is a good chance of seeing them progress very quickly. !

A small loop then brings us back to Oued El Khil for a second passage. Bessem Techini, who has no intention of letting his title take him, probably puts on a little too much and flies off to the right in the bump of the finish to finish his braking … in the side rocky from the finish of the special! The rider is unharmed (with all the same a nice bruise on the scapula and a nice bump in the middle of the forehead), but his Yamaha FZ8 suffers a little: perforated housing, distorted handlebars, well damaged fork crown and tank … not pierced !

A few tinkering later – thank you synthetic metal for the sump! -, it starts again! A tough guy, this Bessem !

Once again the best Tunisian driver, Walid Ben Alaya slams 2’09.91 on his Honda CB 1000 R but penalties incurred on the road will deprive him of first place in the final. Pointing to zero everywhere, first place in the rally event will be occupied by Mehdi Klila on his magnificent 2002 Honda Africatwin, restored to perfection and far from being ridiculous in the special (2’17.91 on the first pass, 2 ‘ 14.63 at second).

On this second pass Julien Toniutti puts on a coat and gives himself a time of 1’51.22! Marc Troussard slowly gets used to his "weapon of war" which is the Yamaha MT09 and also goes under two minutes by posting 1’57.02, while Karine Sliz’s KTM 690 Duke R shows 2’06, 68.

The return to Tataouine is quiet, apart from a refueling with contraband gasoline for Juju (at 10 dinarts or 5.10 euros for 8 liters, we would do well to refuel his C5 VTI!)

After the meal break at the hotel, you must already leave !

The second loop is longer (160 km) … We will therefore have to find a way to supply Julien Toniutti’s KTM … There are stations in almost all the big villages, but here we are heading in another direction , facing south … We will even go through Chenini, a village to see, really !

But the champion of France does not hesitate to treat himself to a few sightseeing tours in an abandoned village … Gasoline? What for, there are everywhere here !

After actually finding a station, we are back at the Oued El Khill special for the third time of the day. Julien goes ahead (Bessem took a lot of hourly penalties following his fall and is now far behind).

"There I must have slammed a space time !"says Julien Toniutti, looking satisfied from the top of his KTM 500 EXC at the stop point of the special, while I sincerely think I missed it…

But we will never have an answer to our temporal questions: Amime Bouhajeb, on Yamaha R1 n ° 11, fell in connection … The first ambulance having moved for this incident (fractured wrist) and the second having problems start, it was not reasonable to restart the special…

It is therefore canceled and the pilots will return via the road course, without making a third timed passage at Oued El Khil !

A quick look at the motorcycles, a lick of grease on the chain, fill up with gasoline and we bring the animals back to the parc ferme, ready for tomorrow‘s hill climb…

Monday: hill climb

The day is short today: after a start at 8:30 am, it is barely 9:00 am when the convoy arrives at the village of El Argoub for the hill climb of this first round of the Tunisian road racing championship..

Everyone gets in place, Eric Serenne as conductor. The Tunisian commissioners and officials learn very quickly and everything is quickly ready to start the race of the 22 remaining pilots (including the four French musketeers) after the various setbacks of the rally the day before.

The coast is quite technical, a starting straight stretch throws us into a tight left-right row with average grip: "don’t let yourself be impressed by the big black spot of dried diesel which crosses the road at the entrance to the first right ", assures us Eric Serenne," it’s dry, it holds! "… But the gravels of the sideways overflowing more or less on the asphalt are hardly more reassuring … We will take it easy in the first stopwatch !

The arrival after a very fast left is on a desert plateau … The scenery is total, we really have the impression of being on another planet in the middle of "Darth Vader Moto Tour" !

After a first reconnaissance climb, we continue on a chrono climb which determines the launch order of the interplanetary motorcycles !

Contrary to what he led us to believe before his first climb, Julien Toniutti is not beside his pumps: at the controls of his KTM 500 EXC vessel, he covers the 1.2 km of the coast in 53.59 seconds in its best climb, ahead of the Yamaha MT09 from Marc Troussard’s space (56.76).

Third time in the absolute scratch and first Tunisian rider, Med Saddem Trabelsi places his Honda CB 1000 R less than 4 seconds behind (1’00.27), followed by the second Tunisian, Walid ben Alaya (Honda CB 1000 R) in 1 ‘ 01.27.

1’01.65 for the best time of the KTM 690 Duke R of Karine Sliz, who nevertheless obtains the fourth place of the complete classification of the hill climb, her cumulative times of the two climbs being better by a few tenths than that of Walid.

The morning goes by very quickly, and everyone will be home for the meal.

Relaxed atmosphere around the hotel swimming pool while waiting for the final results. Among the French, no one wants to return! The south of Tunisia is truly magical and the organizers are so passionate and efficient … Here it is the motorcycle planet, the Bardos Bikers and the Tunisian National Road Racing Commission can be proud of their baby. Bravo to them, we had to do it and they did it !

Marcus HIMSELF

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