Road rallies – 74th Rallye de l’Ain: one more Ain for Toniutti! – Saturday 11am: old-fashioned departure!

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74th Rallye de l’Ain: one more Ain for Toniutti !

Road rallies - 74th Rallye de l'Ain: one more Ain for Toniutti! - Saturday 11am: old-fashioned departure!

For the second year in a row, Site and official KTM driver Julien Toniutti wins the Rallye de l’Ain on his KTM 990 Superduke against the Corsican resistance and after a suspense maintained until the end of the race ! Report.

Saturday 11am: old-fashioned departure !

This 74th edition of the oldest road rally is still different: start at Cerdon (01), as in recent years for three day loops and two night loops with three different routes, each taking each special once. Loops 1, 2 and 4 are identical and cover a hundred kilometers.

The third day’s lap is shortened and cuts a good sixty kilometers from the route to reach Cerdon almost directly after the second special (20 minutes of connection instead of the 1h35 of the first two laps).

Loop 5, the last lap, is again different and not much longer than loop 3. It passes through the locality of Boches and joins Cerdon by a very small, very bumpy road which descends on the side of the vines (the famous vineyard of Cerdon, an inimitable sparkling rose)…

The two specials are at the start of the course. Ceignes, a dozen kilometers after the start, will be done only 10 km before Challes. The rest of the track is rather rolling, which allows the drivers to recover between the stages of each lap. 20 minutes of assistance are granted between each lap of the day stage and 10 minutes between the two night laps.

The first departure of the day is scheduled for 11:00 am, just like in the 90s! 140 drivers are at the start (including 24 sidecars, a category that has been gaining momentum lately).

It rained last night and the road is wet, which makes the situation a bit more difficult … Just enough time to get up to speed and here we are at the start of the Ceignes special. There, it is the anguish: how will the bends jump in our face? Having only been able to appreciate them in recce at the wheel of my Assistance Traffic, at nearly 50 km / h in the climb that commands the first right – with the bike I will tumble at 90/100, not sure that I can find my bearings for the right-left row which "should" be taken thoroughly…

Further on in the special, we know that the tight turns will be indicated by signs installed by the organization. But to enter a bend quickly without recognizing it, just because you didn’t see a sign indicating that it was tight, you need to have either good life insurance or an armored and lined reproductive system. earthquake protection, especially in the wet !

However, the panels are well positioned and some will even be used during the next passages of brake marks for delicate turns. Well done to the organization for their management of the non-recognition of specials !

This special is short but fairly technical and requires great precision in the trajectory, as the road is narrow and rough in places. A large "row" of nearly a kilometer, very fast, does not give right to the error: a large bump when you are at full speed, slight curve to the left after the bump, right wide enough, left a little tight then at the bottom at the entrance to the undergrowth and sharp turn to the right which plunges into a rapid descent, large curve to the right, then the same to the left and large row to bottom to pass the finish full! A special with a big heart !

Small surprise during the first passage to Ceignes: the best time did not go to a member of UM Ain as one would have expected, but to a Corsican driver from JMP Racing, Porcu Mickael on the Aprilia 550 SXV n ° 127, started on a drying road while the first (including Paul-Christian Piazza) had started on very wet. Mickael slaps "blind" a 1’33.05, ahead of another Corsican rider from JMP Racing, the astonishing Flavien Coitoux riding a KTM 690 SMC, and the official KTM rider Julien Toniutti (1’36.19). Follow in fourth and fifth position Benoit Heintz (KTM 690 SMR in 1’37.74) and Paul-Christian Piazza (KTM 450 EXC in 1’38.74).

Behind, Bruno Langlois (Ducati 1100 Streetfighter n ° 3) is content with eighth time or Florent Derrien (KTM 690 SM n ° 4) with thirteenth. Hats off to the first sidecar, the Amblard / Bourdiaux crew on their 90s Choda Kawasaki 1100 ZZR fossil, which placed twelfth in 1’40.21. But these times cannot be taken as a reference knowing, because most of the top pilots simply took their marks to "put some gas" on the second pass….

The connection is very short to reach Challes-la-Montagne, the second special of the course. This one, we have a little in memory to have already driven on previous editions. But the benchmarks are forgotten from one year to the next, and it will still take strong nerves to put big gas in the fast parts, especially in the big row downhill until the finish…

On the first pass it slips a lot, especially in the first two very, very slippery hairpins … Mickael Porcu, excellent pilot, again places his Aprilia 550 SXV in first position (1’35.67) in front of the Choda Kawasaki 1100 ZZR sidecar of the no less recent Amblard / Bourdiaux crew (1’38.59) and the father / son crew Bruno and Jeremy Marlin (1’39.69) at the controls of their magnificent side Choda Benelli 1130 TNT! No doubt it’s easier on three wheels when it’s slippery !

Behind, it is still the most total disorder because this special can be taken very quickly in places and the top pilots have used this passage to validate their references: Paul-Christian Piazza on his KTM 450 EXC is classified fifth behind Franck Coudert on Ducati 1100 Multistrada, but we find Bruno Langlois (Ducati 1100 Streetfighter) 13th, Florent Derrien (KTM 690 SM) 14th, Nicolas Pautet (KTM 990 Superduke) 17th and Julien Toniutti (official KTM 990 Superduke) 20th in 1’44.54 !

Marcus HIMSELF

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