Road rallies – Rallye du Dourdou: Derrien winner, Toniutti champion! – Act 1: serious matters …

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Rallye du Dourdou: Derrien winner, Toniutti champion !

Road rallies - Rallye du Dourdou: Derrien winner, Toniutti champion! - Act 1: serious matters ...

The pilot KTM official site Julien Toniutti is the 2013 French rally champion, after a fierce battle until the last stage against Florent Derrien, winner of this tenth Rallye du Dourdou. Story of a hotly contested final…

Act 1: serious matters…

The Dourdou Rally is party time! And what better representative of good humor than the knight of Groland, Serge Nuques, to open the festivities? The infamous character was therefore chosen by the Moto Club de Villecomtal as opener for this tenth edition of the Dourdou rally, final of the 2013 French road rally championship..

For the occasion, Sergei is at the controls of his Yamaha 450 WRF with large wheels and nipple tires … No need for a road-book for the competitors, the course may well be marked on the ground by the knight’s claw. !

At the exit of the closed park Julien Toniutti is concentrated: his 19 point lead in the championship over Florent Derrien does not leave him much margin for error, he will have to put on big gas while avoiding the fault…

The battle promises to be hot: from the first special, it is Laurent Filleton, pilot of an Aprilia 1000 Tuono, who obtains the best time in 1’58.37. He is followed very closely by Bruno Schiltz on the handlebars of his KTM 690 Duke (1’58.53) and Julien Toniutti on KTM 990 SMT in 1’59.11. But the KTM 690 SM of pilot Florent Derrien is only 6 tenths behind Julien (1’59.69): the night promises to be thrilling !

In the Villecomtal special, the pilot of the Journal moto du Net Julien Toniutti is the victim of a quack: "two or three turns after the start of the special, I felt the rear tire of my KTM 990 SMT go slightly … I was wondering what I had driven on and did not understand this reaction, but I quickly understood what happened when the phenomenon worsened over the bends", explains Julien at the end of the stage,"as if fate was on me at the end of the championship: I had a puncture! I felt that the title might well slip away"…

Florent Derrien and his KTM 690 SM do not make in the lace by offering the best time here, almost two seconds ahead of the second, Bruno Schiltz (2’12.25 against 2’14.19)! Third time for the Aprilia 1000 Tuono of Laurent Filleton in 2’16.59…

Despite his puncture, Julien Toniutti will still get sixth time here in 2’18.20, less than a second behind his Site teammate Nicolas Pautet on Husaberg 650 FS (2’17.90).

Julien will change his wheel after the finish of the special and will manage not to take a late penalty following this express intervention, during which he accidentally burned his fingers on the rear brake caliper when changing the wheel … The race continues for him, but with almost six seconds behind his direct competitor Florent Derrien…

At the arrival of this first loop, the night is now well established. Julien is always focused and Florent remains motivated. For the contenders for third place overall in the championship, nothing is yet set between Bruno Schiltz and Nicolas Pautet.

However, it is much harder for the courageous Franck Coudert: barely recovered from his violent fall in, his dislocated fingers of his right hand make him suffer as well as his shoulder, which is a serious handicap to drive his Ducati "quickly". 1200 Multistrada. But he did not let himself be defeated so far and gave his maximum by setting very honorable times: he was 11 seconds behind Florent Derrien and less than 4 seconds behind Julien Toniutti at the end of this first lap..

Second passage to the Mouret special, with again a better time for Florent Derrien and his KTM 690 SM (2’01.21) ahead of Julien Toniutti in 2’01.63 and Bruno Schiltz in 2’02.63.

Villecomtal, second at night: same classification as in the previous special but with slightly different gaps. This time, Florent Derrien sticks more than a second to Julien Toniutti (2’13.86 against 2’13.05) while Bruno Schiltz is third more than 2 seconds behind Julien (2’17.07). But the Site pilot Nicolas Pautet on Husaberg 650 FS follows suit to 4 tenths of a second !

The route is nice and relatively easy, with some gravel in perdition here and there but the connection times are long and the return is therefore done quietly to the park of Villecomtal.

Some are doing the math, such as the Amblard crew, Alain and Olivier on their Choda 1100 Kawasaki ZZR: that’s it, the side category title is guaranteed! the driver and captain of the crew, Alain Amblard, will at the end of the race have to take care, as he had announced at the previous rally, of the preparation of a giant barbecue to celebrate his title and the end of the 2013 championship , party planned after the arrival of the rally tomorrow evening. A nice idea, a little in competition with the giant aligot planned by the Moto club of Villecomtal, but of an irreproachable friendliness !

For his part, Julien Toniutti finished third in this stage, which leaves him only 10 points ahead of Florent Derrien … Tomorrow’s day will be decisive !

Marcus HIMSELF

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