Road rallies – The Dourdou Rally seen from the inside: Toniutti the heat wave! – The day of the four rounds

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The Dourdou Rally seen from the inside: Toniutti the heat wave !

Road rallies - The Dourdou Rally seen from the inside: Toniutti the heat wave! - The day of the four rounds

The 12th edition of the Dourdou rally, 6th and penultimate round of the 2015 championship, sees the victory of Julien Toniutti (Yamaha MT-09) who takes back the pole position of the championship between heatwave and rain of penalties…. Interior report.

The day of the four towers

A few "not enough" hours of sleep later, here we are again in the pre-grid behind the Dark Dog arch for the start of the second stage of the twelfth Dourdou rally.

It’s almost 10:00 a.m. and it’s already hot, very hot! The pilots in sauna mode in their leather suits await their departure time. Four laps of nearly 70 km each, it could be long, very long !

On the Scooters side, while Mathieu Bruneau is almost already champion of France after winning the night stage while suffering from his knee on the handlebars of his integrated Honda, a new kid, Fabien Assemat may well blow him victory in controls of a Yamaha 530 T Max: Fabien is less than 13 seconds from Mathieu while having taken a 15-second penalty at "CH mobile"! There too, it will heat up today…

After a few pleasant kilometers to admire these sublime landscapes, we are back in Rodelle for the first special of the day.

Motivated by his fantastic comeback in the provisional classification of the championship, Julien Toniutti puts on a coat and sets himself the best time in 1’50.48, followed closely to a few 5 tenths by Christophe Velardi (1’51.01), him also motivated by his rise.

The third time goes to Laurent Filleton, for his part a little disappointed by his tumble in the provisional following the small blunder of the night…

Always so regular, Bruno Schiltz is in ambush in fourth position, 1.22 seconds behind Laurent.

A good performance also from Superwoman Sonia Barbot: the French "Women’s" champion takes the ninth scratch time (1’57.83), first Topsport! Other questions, gentlemen ?

The connection to join the Limon special has started to be usual since the previous stage and the strategic points of the road safety platoons (PSR, with their police binoculars to track speeding on the open road), are now well identified. The competitors therefore gently wave their hands to the "Rally Judas" while others honk them….

But there may also be answers to these friendly signs: I will personally take a splash of water from a PSR welcoming my "street legal" crossing of a small town. Nice PSR, it refreshes by this unbearable heat !

Limon, first day pass. This time, Christophe Velardi slams the best time (1’56.56) ahead of Bruno Schiltz on the attack (1’57.44) and Laurent Filleton (1’58.25).

At the end of this first loop of the day, in Villecomtal, the half-hour of assistance break granted is not too much by this scorching heat: you have to hydrate and recharge your batteries..

And it’s off again for the second round! In Rodelle, Toniutti got the upper hand by setting himself the best time only 11 hundredths ahead of Velardi (1’50.29 against 1’50.40). Third time for Schiltz in 1’51.11, some 82 hundredths behind the leader.

The temperature is at its maximum and when we arrive in Limon, the tar begins to melt on the special! This does not prevent Julien Toniutti from once again seeking the best time (1’53.31), ahead of a Bruno Schiltz in good form by barely 35 hundredths (1’53.66). Filleton is third, a second pile behind (1’54.66).

The special becomes very slippery and the asphalt is loosening more and more as the competitors pass under the scorching sun…

At the end of the tour, always 30 minutes of assistance to drink a liter of water, quickly check the mob and we leave for the third loop !

In Rodelle, for the fifth time since the start of the rally, Toniutti is still ahead! It is followed by Velardi and Filleton, the times of the three pilots separated by less than 6 tenths! (1’49.74, 1’49.89 and 1’50.31).

We are back at the start of Limon but that was to be expected: the melting special, which had become dangerous, was neutralized. We will therefore take it in conjunction for a passage without stopwatch.

Back for the third time today in Villecomtal, the question arises: will we do the fourth loop planned ?

As the asphalt of the Rodelle special was not degraded, the race management decided to keep a fourth loop by shortening it to go only to this special..

After the last 30 minutes of assistance, here we are again for a short tour this time, shortened by about thirty kilometers.

Rodelle last round and same classification as in the previous round: Toniutti, Velardi and Filleton, however with a little less tight times (1’51.27, 1’52.27 and 1’52.63). The still passable bitumen is also starting to melt…

Marcus HIMSELF

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