Road rallies – Julien Toniutti wins the Rallye de la Sarthe – The race!

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Julien Toniutti wins the Rallye de la Sarthe

Road rallies - Julien Toniutti wins the Rallye de la Sarthe - The race!

For the second year in a row, Site rider Julien Toniutti won the Rallye de la Sarthe riding the official KTM 990 Superduke KTM France. A victory wrested by the force of the wrist… not broken this year! Report.

The race !

Start of stage 1, Saturday 7:30 am. That’s it, it’s going! From minute to minute, the riders set off in pairs to join the Bugatti circuit, the famous theater of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Moto.

For reasons of organization and setting up of the series on the circuit, the sidecars start first, followed by the solos in the order of the numbers according to the categories (the Elite is therefore divided by categories of machines).

On the Bugatti, the champions of the sidecar category (Laur and Ferrieu) won in 8’50.07 ahead of Agin and Debraise on Hechard 1300 Suzuki (8’52.51) and Fouet / Quilbault on Suzuki 1300 GSXR (8’55.14) . These times will place them respectively in 34, 39 and 47th position of the general Scratch classification..

Then it is the first "Solo" series, in Topsport with in the front row the three leaders of the 2011 championship: Nicolas Derrien (BMW Panda F8RR), Julien Toniutti (KTM 990 Superduke) and Bruno Langlois (Ducati Streetfighter). Further on the grid we find in third row Nicolas Pautet on KTM 990 Superduke n ° 7. Olivier Ulmann is in ninth row, not very well placed for an endurance driver … For my part, I find myself in fifth row, which reassures me a little knowing that the good ones are already ahead !

Two warm-up laps later, here we are at the start. Red light, green light and let’s go for four laps. Bruno Langlois immediately takes control while I get knocked off by an Olivier Ulmann gone like a bullet on the handlebars of his KTM 990 Superduke !

"I left in second to be able to go fully", he then confesses:"It gave me a great boost to gain maximum speedHe quickly joined Bruno Langlois’ Ducati Streetfighter for a fierce battle as Julien Toniutti’s official KTM 990 Superduke passed Nicolas Derrien, who held on to fourth place until the end of the series..

The battle is tough for the position of leader, but Bruno Langlois resists the assaults of Olivier Ulmann who ends the series hardly more than three tenths behind Bruno. (7’38.86 for Bruno and 7’39.21 for Olivier).

Julien Toniutti gets a 7’46.72 on the handlebars of his KTM 990 Superduke, which gives him a good option for the rest of the events (at the rally of the Sarthe, the time spent on the Bugatti is often of capital importance). Nicolas Derrien’s BMW Panda F8RR will have to be content with an already honorable time of 7’49.46.

After 15 minutes of assistance, we set off again one by one minute to minute for the road course which should lead us to the Courceboeufs special.

Keeping the order of departure in the morning, the sidecars left in front of the leaders. Arrived at Courceboeufs, the start of the special is delayed because recalcitrant residents decided to pass, violating the prefectural decree which cut off traffic…

With diplomacy, the organizers negotiated with the bad sleepers, taking advantage of this neutralization to install additional safety signals, because some sidecars had difficulty in understanding the change of direction or it happened very quickly…

During this time, the pilots and especially the tires were cooling…

Half an hour later, the race resumed and Nicolas Derrien lines up his F8RR on the starting line. "30 seconds !", announces to Nicolas the commissioner of the start, then it left. But a few seconds later, the radio of station 4 announces a fall! victim of his cold tires, Nico lost the rear when accelerating on the angle and takes off on a violent high side in one of the first corners of the special !

Fortunately he will eventually come out with a broken rib and some bruises (final diagnosis when a first diagnosis of three broken ribs and a slightly affected lung had been established in the first place). The bike has also suffered a little, at first glance the rear part is the only one affected but there must still be work to restore it! To be continued…

Finally, three quarters of an hour later (time for the return of help) it starts again. This time the tires are really cold and we will have to take it easy in the first corners….

It’s a local rider, Tony Chereau on KTM 990 Superduke (another one !!!) who scratches the special in 2’09.51 in front of the Honda 900 Hornet of Daniel Blanchon (2’10.81) and Bruno Shiltz (Suzuki 750 GSR) in 2’10.83. Cautious due to the cold tires, Olivier Ulmann (KTM 990 Superduke) obtained the sixth time in 2’14.40, Bruno Langlois (Ducati 1100 Streetfighter) the eighth (2’14.93) and Julien Toniutti the ninth (2’15.33).

We are now back to Ballon for assistance. Due to the delay accumulated on the first pass of the Courceboeufs special, the Balloon / Balloon loop with a second passage at Courceboeufs is canceled. We will therefore remain two hours in neutralization at Ballon after the service. The pilots take the opportunity to eat and rest while waiting for the afternoon stage and the Domfront-en-Champagne special.

This special is more technical and gravely in places, with four changes of direction and parts downhill … Strong! At Domfront, it was the young Corsican rider Paul-Christian Piazza riding a KTM 450 EXC who had the best time, 5 tenths ahead of the two KTM 990 Superduke of Julien Toniutti and Tony Chereau: the two friends completed the same time to the nearest hundredth! (2’18.69 for both and 2’18.18 for Paul-Christian Piazza. Follows the Ducati 1100 Streetfighter by Bruno Langlois in 2’20.53.

The link then brings us back to La-Suze-sur-Sarthe, rally HQ where 1h30 of assistance allows to prepare the machines for the night stage.

By doing the accounts according to the classification of the first stage, Julien Toniutti knows that he is more than two seconds behind Olivier Ulmann, himself 4 seconds behind Bruno Langlois, leader of the daytime stage. Finally Tony Chereau is 4 seconds from Julien Toniutti: anything is possible tonight, it will be hot !

Night stopover: Domfront-en-Champagne by night. The departure scheduled for 7:45 p.m. will finally be postponed to 8:15 p.m. It’s not really dark yet, but the connection time to get to the first night special will be enough to see there as in the Channel Tunnel on a blackout evening….

The start of the night stage is this time from the village center of La-Suze-sur-Sarthe.

Domfront-en-Champagne by night: Tony Chereau is putting big gas! The driver from Le Mans and his KTM 990 Superduke got the best time in 2’21.36, more than three seconds ahead of the KTM official Julien Toniutti (2’24.43)! And it was a sidecar (the H. Laur / M.L. Ferrieu crew on Choda 1300 Suzuki) which took third time in 2’26.19 while Bruno Langlois on his Ducati 1100 Streetfighter posted a fifth time in 2’27.77.

At Courceboeufs, it was again the KTM 990 Superduke of local driver Tony Chereau which took the best time with 7 hundredths of a second ahead of Julien Toniutti (2’12.03 against 2’12.10). Bruno Langlois is third at almost four seconds (2’15.89). The accounts are quickly made: the leading trio are held in almost the same second and everything will have to be decided in the last special of the rally….

Domfront last, we shoot: "I gave everything I had, and even what I didn’t have !", admits KTM official Julien Toniutti who signs a time of 2’18.75 on the handlebars of his KTM 990 Superduke Site: a time almost identical to his best time at Domfront on the day stage! Julien therefore won the special by sticking more than 4 seconds to Tony Chereau, great art !

Bad pick on the other hand for Bruno Langlois who, undoubtedly also wanting to give what he did not have, made a mistake and finished the special in 2’48.60 … The Corsican driver will still finish the loop with a shoulder slightly dislodged and a tired Ducati Streetfighter…

So it started very strong this year with a superb high-flying fight from the first event! In the general scratch classification (day + night) we find a historic podium of three KTM 990 Superduke: Julien Toniutti winner, Tony Chereau second and Olivier Ulmann third.

Next event with the Rallye de Corse in Porticcio on April 28th and 29th, to be experienced on Site: stay tuned !

Marcus HIMSELF

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