Road rallies – Live from Marcillat: the ultimate stage! –

Posted on by admin

Live from Marcillat: the final step !

Road rallies - Live from Marcillat: the ultimate stage! -

After the intense night stage yesterday, only 37 survivors out of the 54 survivors lined up at the start this morning for a final loop with four road specials. Wilfried Tallone still leads the way but the penalties have not yet been applied…

Last minute

Update 2:53 pm : Tallone scratches the first two specials, followed by Godard and Leger. Bad news, however, concerning the state of health of Jean-Michel Poncet … (read)

One would have thought that the pace was going to slow down, that the little night loop on Friday evening would have pity on the tiredness of the pilots … It’s a tight CH loop, on a wet road, and in the fog on top of that! From the extreme, always from the extreme !

For the road route, the same music as since the start of the adventure: no signage, everything in the road book on rotten roads with incessant changes of direction: at the crossroads in 100 m, turn left, then at the ramp 200 m after it is on the right, then immediately on the left to arrive in a dirt road to borrow for 100 m, then at the intersection to take on the left … Then roll 200 m to turn right and continue 300 m before leaving the road to the left … Fortunately it was no longer raining, but the road was wet and the fog persisted…

On the only special of the night, it was Etienne Godart at the controls of his Ducati Monster 1100 who got the best time in 2’08.303, a bit ahead of Wilfried Tallone on the handlebars of his Yamaha 450 WR who slammed a 2’08.870. The third fastest time was taken by Pascal Leger on his Triumph 675 Daytona in 2’13.089.

Then comes the road, still as strong, that nobody manages to complete on time: 6 minutes late at the final score for the most punctual … Which says a lot about the night’s menu !

In the provisional classification after the night stage, before application of penalties at the end of the race, Wilfried Tallone is still in the lead, now followed by Pascal Leger who is only 11 seconds behind the leader in the cumulative times of the specials. Etienne Godart follows with a little more than 21 seconds delay.

Finally, a little night’s sleep for the pilots and their assistants: the day’s stage on Saturday did not start until 10 am this morning. With the last pilots on Friday evening arriving at more than 2 a.m., that’s still not a huge sleep quota! Saturday morning, it starts again !

At 10 am this morning, the competitors arrived at the start: 37 competitors out of the 54 survivors still in the race.

Benoît Legendre, our correspondent at the start of Le Puy, is still in the race on his Suzuki 600 GSXR sponsored by Vins de Gaillac AOC). But more than fifty brave people were eliminated during the devastating connection of the first night … They nevertheless allowed to participate in the stage "for fun" (confirmation, the rallyman is masochist!)

Michel Bonneau is also still racing on the handlebars of his Triumph Street Triple: the Site correspondent at the start of Le Mans is currently in 16th position in the provisional excluding penalties.

Michael Pefaure is tired, but his position (12th in the provisional scratch and 3rd Mono motivates him. He leaves hot boiling for this final hard day: there are only three Monos left in the race. !

This time it’s sunny, but a few small road book problems require the organization to skip the first section of the road. The pilots are therefore sent in groups of 5 directly to the first special of the day: the Château de l’Ours, 4.2 km very technical !

There will still be movement: the stage will not be easier than the others! So stay tuned … and see you tonight !

Marcus HIMSELF

Related articles

Leave a Reply

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