Road rallies – Rallye du Ventoux: Delaval in front of everyone! –

Posted on by admin

Rallye du Ventoux: Delaval in front of everyone !

Road rallies - Rallye du Ventoux: Delaval in front of everyone! -

By winning this weekend at the Rallye du Ventoux, Manoel Delaval won the title of French Elite 2010 champion riding his Honda CB1000R. This first Ventoux revives old-style rallying: difficult course and tight times… Report.

We had to dare: Patrick Bournisien, organizer of this first Rallye du Pays du Ventoux, did it! This first edition has given new importance to the road course, with a 180 km loop to be covered twice during the day and once at night, on roads sometimes closer to the dirt road than asphalt, without signs, to follow. in the paper road book (GPS and Tripy prohibited)…

This concept, close to the Ultimate Rally of the same organizer (read our special reports and), did not delight everyone … Most drivers knew that this event would not necessarily be won in the specials and many were are applied to better recognize the road course thanks to the road book available from the Monday before the race.

In the paddock, the work of preparing the road book is meticulous. But in the Team Site, a slight concern is felt: will Pierre "Moon" Mouneu get out of it? Then second in the Elite Championship, Moon knows he still has a chance, however small, of winning the supreme title. But there, there is no room for error: we will have to navigate as precisely as possible! The slightest error in the course can waste big minutes that it would be almost impossible to make up on this exclusive road…

For his part, Manoel Delaval is confident and the smile that illuminates his face shows it. He is prepared and his relatively comfortable lead over Pierre (31 points, one point more than what the first will win on one of the two stages day and night) gives him some peace of mind. But the future champion of France Elite 2010 does not rest on his (future) laurels and intends to lead his race as seriously as possible to the end. !

The lanes taken easily let guess that the 60 km / h imposed average will be difficult to maintain … Also, on the advice of the members of the rally commission, 5 additional minutes are added to the time allotted for the first link ( 22 km of very gravelly and bumpy roads).

First loop

In Malaucène (84), at the foot of Mont Ventoux, the start of number 1 is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning from the village bowling alley.

As we expected, the first section of road is hot … Many changes of direction towards roads with more than degraded surface, even nonexistent … and gravel everywhere! But the leaders do not let themselves be impressed: Patrick "Ultipat" Curtat (winner of the Ultimate Rally 2009) is in his element and arrives with nearly ten minutes in advance at the first time control, just like Manoel Delaval, Maxime Mettra, Pierre Mouneu or Stephane Ricciarelli, the winner of the Rallye de Corse (read coming to compete with continental drivers on their land !

Behind, most of the pilots also clock in on time (thank you for the extra 5 minutes!) But many are "gardening" (looking for their way) and the penalties are starting to drop…

The second part of the link which leads to the first special is barely smoother than the start of the layout, but some parts of "normal" roads allow you to breathe a bit..

Special 1 at the Col de Viares: 3 km of rather fast narrow road, with a clean surface on the whole but with some earthy areas which do not encourage you to go and test the grip…

There, it’s Maxime Mettra who opens the ball at the controls of his KTM 950 Supermoto, a thousandth of a second ahead of Manoel Delaval on his Honda CB 1000 R. Behind more than three seconds, Marc Antoine Bozzi places his Honda 600 Hornet in third position. The first Mono is Stephane Ricciarelli on his Yamaha 450 WRF, still a second behind, while we expected better times here from the machines typed supermotard !

The following link, of the same ilk as the previous one, does not allow you to relax your attention when reading the road book … The organizer even pushed the flaw to the point of setting up passage controls that would spare not the errors of course! Here, the road is not only used to connect the stages and some have paid the price…

Second special at Veaux: nearly 6km of superb road, very fast and with perfect curves … But a radio link problem between the marshals’ posts did not allow the start to be launched! After long minutes of waiting, the organization decides to skip this special, which will still be taken but without a stopwatch. Part of the route that was supposed to take us through Mont Ventoux will be bypassed to make up for the delay in the program. But the removal of these 60 km of link does not annoy anyone, because the route is quite selective enough as it is !

Second loop

When passing the second loop (which is only 120 km), a second surprise awaits the competitors at CH2: the time control marshals, warned too late of the change in the course, did not have time to install control equipment before the arrival of motorcycles !

After a slight panic and a few more or less heated discussions between competitors and marshals, everything is back to normal: this time control is canceled and the rally resumes. Completely understandable youthful mistakes for a very first edition: the Ventoux is magnificent and it does not rain, let’s be positive !

We are back at the Col de Viares for the second special of the rally. Manoel Delaval sets the record straight and places his Honda CB 1000 R in first position with a time of 1’40.419 ahead of Maxime Mettra and his KTM 950 Supermoto (1’42.522) and Stephane Ricciarelli on his Yamaha 450 WRF (1 ‘ 43.310).

Rebelote in Veaux: Mano scratches the special again with a space time: 3’15.822, almost two seconds ahead of Maxime Mettra (3’17.648). This time it’s Bruno Schiltz riding the Buell 1125 CR of the Central Team who takes third position in 3’18.435 while behind, the gaps are enormous: Stephane Ricciarelli places the first Mono at 3’24.230…

On the side-cars side, the Lebert / Jeandemange crew on their Yamaha 1100 FJ are smiling: it smacks of the title !

In the standings of the day stage, Mano is full of points and now becomes untouchable in the championship ahead of Pierre Mouneu on his old Husaberg 650 FSE, which ends this stage in fourth position. The Team Site is reassured: Moon is an ace in road book reading !

The championship podium also smells good for Maxime Mettra, who finishes the stage in second position and earns enough points to reach the third step. !

But the race is not over: fitting additional headlights and preparing for the night for everyone !

In the Team Site stand, which takes advantage of the assistance truck (thanks again to Raphaël Bonifay for his inexhaustible talent!), The staff are busy repackaging the motorcycles for this last night stage of the 2010 championship….

Pierre is assured of his second scratch place and his Mono title, but for my part (faith of Marcus!) I want to stay in Elite (the first 20 of the championship) and the 5 minutes of penalty incurred following a session of "gardening "during the first loop relegated me to 32nd place of the day, so zero points … I’m missing 7 or 8 to stay in the 20 !

Ditto for Nicolas Pautet and his Husaberg 650 FS (even older than Moon’s, and for good reason: 2004 model!): The new recruit of the Team Site, who has not yet had the opportunity to speak since the start of the season (fall in Les Garrigues, fall on the Bugatti in Sarthe and engine failure just before Corsica), also suffered a 4-minute penalty for gardening…

Another victim of the merciless driver: Bruno Schiltz finished third of the day "excluding penalties" but found himself 34th following the three minutes imposed for a missed passage control !

Last night of the 2010 championship and final classification

Only one loop is planned for this night stage. The route is no more rolling than during the day, the gravel has not gone to bed and depending on the quality of the lighting in his road book, we quickly lose track….

Col de Viares special: Manoel Delaval again leads his Honda CB 1000 R to the best time in 1’43.486, this time more than four seconds ahead of Maxime will put and his KTM 950 Supermoto (1’47.777)! Stephane Ricciarelli followed suit in 1’48.926, followed by Pierre "Moon" Mouneu and Bruno Schiltz. In Veaux, Mano again took the best time in 3’22.274 but he was followed this time by Bruno Schiltz, the driver of the Buell 1125 CR of the Central Team slammed here a nice 3’25.197 with 7 tenths ahead of Maxime Mettra (3’25.899).

Rankings

The winner of the first Rallye du Pays du Ventoux is therefore indisputably Manoel Delaval: a big congratulations to this virtuoso rally driver, whatever the conditions. !

Maxime Mettra on KTM 950 Supermoto, unlucky at the start of the season, has returned to the standings and climbs on the third step of the 2010 podium with this remarkable second place in the Rallye du Ventoux ahead of Stephane Ricciarelli, who confirms his talent at the controls of his Yamaha 450 WR.

In Top Sport, we find Manoel Delaval followed by Maxime Mettra and Patrick Curtat on the handlebars of his KTM 990 Superduke.

For the Mono category, Stephane Ricciarelli takes first place ahead of Pierre Mouneu on his old Husaberg 650 FSE and Renaud Fanon (KTM 690 Duke III).

In the Sport, it is Maxime David on Kawasaki 650 ER6 who wins the pompom in front of Christophe Nicolas (Suzuki 650 SV) and Franck Bacon (Kawasaki 650 ER6).

On the side-cars side, the Lebert / Jeandemange crew prances in the lead on their Yamah 1100 FJ, followed by Laforest / Moreau on Suzuki Choda and Lescane / Roche on Voxan 1000 DJ.

In Oldies, Guy Marchand climbs on the top step of the podium riding his Honda 750 Four, followed by Salah Jouan who drives a Japauto 1000 and Christmas Offering on Kawasaki Z 1000.

Finally in Classics Eric Sarafis (Yamaha 350 RDX) is ahead of Philippe Thoumelin (Honda 600 XLR) and Nick Ayrton (his Suzuki 1100 GSXR).

For the 2010 championship titles, we therefore naturally find Manoel Delaval champion Elite and Topsport, while Pierre Mouneu, our irreplaceable Moon, takes the crown in Mono !

In Sport, Christophe Nicolas snatched the title on this rally (he was tied on points with Franck Bacon before the event) and in sidecars, the laurels of champions go to the Lebert / Jeandemange crew (bravo to Bebert and his Gazelle!).

In the Classics, Nick Ayrton won the 2010 champion title despite his third place in the Rallye du Pays du Ventoux, while in the Old Ones, Guy Marchand’s victory in Ventoux did not allow him to steal the show from Gerard Spagli who won the title on the handlebars of his Yamaha 350 RDX.

The 2010 championship therefore ends on a very nice rally, which despite a few small organizational hiccups should quickly become a great event! We are counting on it for 2011, which will certainly be much richer in events than this year. And if the Team Site missed the supreme title this year, that won’t prevent it from being back next year. !

On the way now for the Ultimate Rally 2010 at the end of June: see you next month, stay tuned !

Marcus HIMSELF

Related articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *