Sport – Girls take on the Dream Cup! –

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Girls storming the Dream Cup !

Sport - Girls take on the Dream Cup! -

The Dream Cup 2004, the first speed race reserved for girls since the disappearance of the Women’s Speed ​​Trophy, will take place on June 19 and 20 on the Carole Circuit. Meeting with Magalï Langlois, the only woman in the last 24 hours of Le Mans.

"At the moment we have 15 registered, which should make about twenty competitors at the start on June 20", explains Daniel Sartor, organizer with Claire Tourres of the Dream Cup 2004 (read).

Besides that there are only girls – which is already very nice! -, the Dream Cup wins the challenge of mixing levels and socio-professional categories, with experienced pilots like Magalï "with an umlaut!" Langlois, saleswoman in a motorcycle dealership and the only woman driver of the last 24 Hours of Le Mans (read) who will rub shoulders with girls with little experience of the track or perfect beginners, computer scientist, metro driver, hairdresser, office worker, high school student or housewife…

"There are half of beginners and half of more experienced girls, including two or three above the rest," says Daniel Sartor, always looking for partners to "perpetuate the adventure". Because in 2005, he plans to organize "a Dream Cup which will be played in six or eight races on different circuits, combining speed and endurance, with perhaps a European race in partnership with the Italian Speed ​​Trophy. Not to mention our Canadian friends and their Women’s Trophy launched last year ". Finally, 2006 could see the birth of a Junior Dream Cup, with clubs affiliated to the FFM which would welcome, in partnership with flight schools, girls aged 13 to 16 years old..

For Christophe Guyot, leaving for China where the second round of the World Endurance Championship will take place next weekend, "it is important not to dive too quickly into the spirit of competition. The Dream Cup could first of all, allow the girls to lay off and make them want to do the circuit. Then, those who want to can compete ". "The girls progress much faster than the boys", explains again the manager of GMT 94, who taught the future competitors of the Dream Cup the basics of driving on track. "They are very good students, very diligent, who have no more apprehension than the boys on a circuit".

"I totally support the Dream Cup project!", Ignites Magalï Langlois, "because there was a lack since the Women’s Trophy stopped. I know very well how hard it is to ride with it. boys, even if their attitude towards us is very positive. Girls must be able to compete as well as boys! " After his first 24 Hours of Le Mans "on a good old 2003 R1" (read our), Magalï hopes to find a motorcycle to participate in the Dream Cup, before heading to the Bol d’Or, this time on the new 2004 R1. " I really come for fun to the Dream Cup, but so far I don’t have a motorcycle "…

Moto-Net: how did you start motorcycling ?
Magalï Langlois: I started at 16 but there was no competition possible. I was riding and I asked my parents for a motorbike so I could go on my own … My dad had done a little bit of motorbiking when he was young so he said OK! I mainly did enduro, then I came to live in Paris and I was going to shoot at Carole on my 750 Kawa. In 1996 I had a big accident on the circuit: double fracture of the pelvis! I then turned to a 250 Aprilia, but I only kept it for two months because it had to be screamed in the towers and I don’t like to torture the mechanics … So I bought a supermoto, then in 1997 I left for Saint-Etienne. This is where I bought my first R1, but I was only driving on the road. Then I did the Bol d’Argent at Le Castellet. We qualified, we finished 42nd and that’s when I got completely hooked! At the beginning of 2000 I showed up in the Open, where I had my head dismantled! I said to myself "there my old lady, there is work!" And the following year I progressed by 10 seconds! I did two years in the Coupe de France endurance, where I found the hard core of my current team, and my first Bol d’Or in 2002 with Team Octopuss. At Bol 2003, with Eliane Pscherer and Alain Bronec, we broke the gearbox and ended up on foot. So I made a three-quarter bowl !

Moto-Net: and this year, Le Mans with Gregory Boulange and Nicolas Ezannic. An old dream ?
Magalï Langlois: the 24 Hours of Le Mans project was almost born in pain, without a hitch in his pocket but very motivated … One of my teammates sold his boat, the other his car and I a motorcycle. We all sold something and we made it! I think that at our level, we had the perfect race! Our old R1, a good old 2003, ran like clockwork. We were first there to qualify. We started 49th on the grid and we knew it would be difficult. Our objective was to stay on our wheels and we finished 26th scratch !

Moto-Net: very good race! Not too hard physically ?
Magalï Langlois: I’m lucky to have very good hands so I didn’t have a single blister! I hadn’t done any special physical preparation, but I exercise six times a week all year round. Especially swimming because it is the best sport, running too but in small doses because it is very traumatic, and cycling because it is good for the heart.

Moto-Net: you manage to reconcile high-level sport and your work ?
Magalï Langlois: I try to come to terms with my five weeks of leave … For us, a 24-hour test is 6 months of work! This is why we will only do two of the three Master’s tests. For the 2004 Bol, we are leaving on a new base with the machine of my teammate Gregory, an R1 2004. An endurance team is 20 people, each as important as the next: the cook is as important as the chief mechanic! You need four mechanics, three timekeepers, two feeders, a firefighter, two tire managers, three people in management, etc. For the preparation, fortunately we manage to manage for the parts thanks to many friends because otherwise, a motorcycle like mine, it would take almost 45,000 euros in public price…

See you at Carole on June 19 and 20 !

Interview by Eric MICHEL

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