Road rallies – Rallye de la Sarthe: victory for the ” Tourist Toniutti ”! – Night stopover on Saturday evening

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Rallye de la Sarthe: victory for the “ Tourist Toniutti ” !

Road rallies - Rallye de la Sarthe: victory for the '' Tourist Toniutti ''! - Night stopover on Saturday evening

Julien Toniutti, reigning French champion, had other ambitions this year, but he could not help coming to participate in this Rallye de la Sarthe for fun … And one more victory for the driver Yamaha ! Story.

Saturday night stopover

8:00 p.m .: as planned in the organization’s schedule, the first competitor starts from the esplanade of the port of La Suze sur Sarthe. 108 competitors are at the start tonight.

This night we will spend twice at Domfront and three times at Amne which will now be timed.

From the first pass on the Amne-en-Champagne special, Bruno Schiltz got the hang of it and took the best time in 1’27.66. Maxime Mettra is second in 1’29.42, followed by Laurent Filleton (still suffering from his knee injury) 15 hundredths further in 1’29.91.

Small flat for the numbers at the end of the peloton: if the first passed almost daylight on this first night special of the rally, around 8:45 p.m., it is quite dark from the 40 or 50th competitor….

This problem has already been studied in the rally committee, but it is difficult to resolve: the prefectural authorizations cannot exceed 2 am for the end of the race do not allow very long night stages … especially after the passage in summer time which makes the days even longer !

ASMACO, organizer of this 59th Sarthe rally, however, kept a stage worthy of the name for the night with five specials. The solution to pass under the same conditions of clarity as the first in the first special? Put a lot of gas to ride in Elite among the top 20 !

We then quickly join Domfront for a first night passage where this time it is really dark for everyone.

Julien Toniutti sets the record straight and sets the best time in 1’16.77. He is followed at more than a second and a half by Florent Derrien (who rides here on the old KTM 690 SMR of his partner Stephanie Mireille) in 1’18.33. Third time for Maxime Mettra (1’18.41) on the handlebars of his Kawasaki 650 Versys Helit Motos – Challenge 24.

Amne in Champagne, second lap in time: Bruno Schiltz put the cover back and placed his Aprilia 1100 Tuono Kiwi Helmets at the top of the timesheet with 1’28.93. Christophe Velardi follows him no less than 4 tenths further and Maxime Mettra, still as consistent, finished third in 1’29.65.

Benoit Nimis is still in ambush not far behind as well as Laurent Filleton. Tonight, Julien Toniutti has some small lighting problems with his additional lights that only work on one side … But hey, it only bothered him in one turn out of two: he should get through it….

More embarrassing lighting problem for the new kid on the Rally Moto Racing team, the very promising Nicolas Sassolas riding his BMW S 1000 R: in the top ten during the day stage, an eighth scratch time on the first pass Amne earlier, Nico suffered a battery failure just after his time at CH, he gave up.

Night refueling in the middle of the loop. It’s not as cold as it was during the day and it’s not raining anymore, as long as it lasts a little longer…

Last visit to Domfront: Florent Derrien squeezes what remains of the juice in the engine of his girlfriend’s old KTM 690 SMR and gives her the best time in 1’18.61. He is closely followed (13 hundredths) by Benoît Nimis (1’18.74) while Bruno Schiltz gets the third fastest time in 1’19.45.

Amne in champagne, last special of the rally: Bruno Schiltz confirmed his superiority last night and gave himself the best time in 1’28.40. Julien Toniutti’s "one-eyed" Yamaha 450 YZF 2B / Moraco gets the second fastest time in 1’29.83 ahead of Benoît Nimis in 1’30.12.

Then it is the return to Suze sur Sarthe for the arrival of the rally which will have taken place without any problem of organization or timing. A perfect race, with a diverse range of categories among the top 20.

Marcus HIMSELF

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