Road rallies – Rallye des Volcans 2015: motorcycle pleasure in dilettante –

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Rallye des Volcans 2015: motorcycle pleasure in dilettante

Road rallies - Rallye des Volcans 2015: motorcycle pleasure in dilettante -

While waiting for the negotiations between the promoter of the French rally championship Option Sports Events (supported by the FFM) and the Alsatian administrative authorities for the final of the Dark Dog Rallye Moto Tour in Saverne (67) to take place as planned ( read MNC of August 24, 2015: the Saverne Rally is canceled), the world of road rally …

While waiting for the negotiations between the promoter of the French rally championship Option Sports Events (supported by the FFM) and the Alsatian administrative authorities for the final of the Dark Dog Rallye Moto Tour in Saverne (67) to take place as planned ( read), the world of road rallying met at the Rallye des Volcans in Gelles (63), on August 29 and 30, for a very nice "non-championship" rally organized by the team of enthusiasts of Auvergne Moto Sport.

"Les Volcans" is a special rally, without the hassle (while respecting of course the main regulatory requirements), where many enthusiasts of the discipline have been meeting for several years, in the middle of the usual summer break of the French championship, end of August.
Of the world and the beautiful people

With 126 entered (138 with the passengers of the 12 side-cars), this eighth edition of the Rallye des Volcans beats its registration record (117 in 2014).

Among the participants we find a majority of "day" licensees (73 exactly), a lot of "rookies" but also a few big names from the French championship such as Franck Coudert (who had) riding his Ducati 1200 Multistrada, the crew triples French side-car champion (2009, 2011 and 2012) Herve Laur and Marie-Laure Ferrieu at the controls of their superb Choda KTM RC8 hitch, the manufacturer Choda himself, Albert Choin, who came with his family with his personal Kawasaki 1100 ZZR hitch, Sebastien Brugues, current second Topsport in the provisional Dark Dog Rallye Moto Tour on the Kawasaki ZX-6R of Team 212, Pascal Poulios (Honda 600 Hornet), at the head of the provisional Veterans ranking of the Dark Dog Rallye Moto Tour 2015 or Pierre Reynaud, him also potential champion of France 2015 but in the Hope category.

Pierre, a friendly young driver from the Rally Moto Racing / Site team, a real-life car / motorcycle instructor, left his Aprilia 1000 Tuono from the Dark Dog Rallye Moto Tour at home to come and participate in the Volcanoes with daddy Christian Reynaud at the handlebars for work motorcycles, Kawasaki 650 ER6 equipped with a "school motorcycle" and reconditioned for the occasion as a rally motorcycle (Pierre’s is the "young driver" model restricted to 48 hp).

Papa Reynaud (Christian), usually not a competitor, came "naked" but will be loaned an Ixon "ex Marcus Himself" leather suit badged Site! And so many other characters from our favorite discipline that it would take too long to name one by one, mingled with the little newcomers to discover the road rally in peace….

Camping Paradise !

A very pleasant meeting, under a radiant sun and in an incomparable atmosphere, that of the discipline "road rally", old-fashioned, without transponders or other high-tech parking meter, with a runners’ park installed like the Rallye du Dourdou in the Gelles campsite (63), endowed with the most comfortable amenities (which is not the case with all rally runners’ parks).

It is therefore in the magical landscapes of Puy-de-Dôme, between the Auvergne mountains and other volcanoes, that the eighth Volcanoes rally took place, also part of the final of the Challenge Central Team 33. Race in the race, this competition of which the first two events took place during the rallies of and of, is a challenge imagined and set up by the dynamic and ingenious Triumph and Harley-Davidson dealer of Chalon-sur-Saône (71) , Thierry Boyer. It is aimed at any beginner in rally or other seasoned driver who wishes to benefit from a structure and the assistance of a top team..

Everything you need to know about the Rallye des Volcans

Auvergne Moto Sport has made it simple in terms of the course this year: no clover multi-loops or other tracks that change at each passage, but a simple 116 km loop to be done twice for the day stage and twice for the night stage.

The course has only one special per loop, located roughly halfway through the loop and 6.5 km long..

A Base Chrono, to make matters worse, positioned just a few kilometers after the start of Gelles, will also have to be covered on each lap (a Base Chrono is a small portion of the route less than 10 km long to be completed as precisely as possible at 60 km / h average, with a known start but a secret and hidden arrival cell).

At the end of each loop, to brighten up the program and accentuate the festive side of the Rallye des Volcans, pilots must go through a gymkhana before joining their stand for a 20-minute assistance..

  • 11h00: First start of the day stage
  • 9:00 p.m .: First departure for the night stage
  • Competitor departures minute to minute

Saturday, 11 a.m. sharp: let’s go !

At Les Volcans, it’s party time and almost anything is allowed! And if the prestigious "KTM Boys" of KTM Team France CTM83, the top drivers of the Dark Dog Rallye Moto Tour Laurent Filleton (KTM 1290 Superduke, 3rd in the provisional of the Dark Dog Rallye Moto Tour) and Florent Derrien (KTM 690 Duke R, Champion de France "Mono" since the Rallye du Dourdou), do credit to Auvergne Moto Sport by playing the role of starters here, it is more humbly than Eric Mangematin, 5th "Classic" of the provisional championship of France, which opens the ball with the plate n ° 1 on the handlebars of his Honda 600 XLM.

Then the departures are linked every minute under the cheers of the public and under the watchful eye of the scorekeepers, all by hand, old-fashioned !

The atmosphere is in good shape and everyone goes there with their own personal "no stress" touch! Sebastien Brugues (Kawasaki ZX6-R), knife between his teeth, is ready to do battle with his friend Fred Jalade (Triumph 675 Daytona Rally Moto Racing), an excellent rider used to the fire Dark Dog Moto Tour, come to score the maximum of points to the Central Team challenge to obtain the best possible place in the final ranking.

Eric "Chabou" Martin, the crazy orthodontist, loyal competitor of the Dark Dog Rallye Moto Tour more accustomed to the rear end of the rankings than to winning, proudly wears the colors of his association of health professionals (GEF), while Pierre Reynaud is decked out in his "Moto Ecole" chasuble ("Reynaud driving school, the driving school you need") and Martine Guinot, usual assistant of the Rally Moto Racing team, came to do her first rally as a driver "to see what it’s like on that side" rather than pampering her husband Laurent Guinot, driver of the Dark Dog Rallye Moto Tour, as she has done all season long within the team…

Without forgetting the boss of the Central Team, Thierry Boyer, wound up like a clock from the start, this time at the controls of a Triumph 1050 DJ sidecar…

In short, here we race while having fun and Claude Astaix, president of Auvergne Moto Sport supported by his treasurer, Philippe Moulin – who plays more the role of "second president" than that of simple treasurer – have rather succeeded their shot! The label "promotion of the rally discipline" which is dear to them is very well carried by the Rallye des Volcans, a more than friendly sporting event where every biker has his place..

Now let’s move on to racing and performance! The course is rather pleasant, varied and superb. Small flat for some "obsessed with chrono": the chrono base will not necessarily be appreciated by everyone … It is a particular style exercise and it is not that obvious to regulate precisely your hourly average while following a road book. Some will never pass the arrival cell, joining the road course by a bad road following an error in reading the road book, while bypassing the arrival cells…

But hey, fortunately (or not …), the timing bases are not topical on the French championship events. In short, there it was for fun, the chrono base does not penalize that much insofar as it is covered "normally", but now we are at the special, and there we have to make the powder speak. !
From the first pass, Fred Jalade announces the color and slams a space time on the handlebars of his Triumph 675 Daytona: 3’43.6 !

Assistance and it starts again !

At the end of this first loop, Fred can not believe it: he has fun on his bike and "takes a phenomenal footing", but from there to "go in" ("drive faster than" in rallyman language) all the time. world, anyway…

On his return to the assistance (after the gymkhana which, due to a lack of stopwatch and stewards / judges, will ultimately not count for the stocked basket for which it was intended and will have just been used to animate the end of the loop), Fred is confident and will try to do as well during the second loop.

The Challenge Central Team was only counted for the daytime stage and Fred only came for the challenge (and to find his friends from Rally Moto Racing, his favorite assistance), he began to regret not being ” be registered for the full day / night event !

And again on the second lap: best time for the Triumph 675 Daytona by Fred Jalade, 3.3 seconds faster than in the first lap (3’40.3).

As in the first round, Fred is ahead of his most dangerous competitor in the Challenge Central Team, Jerôme Putin (Triumph 675 Street Triple), and thus finishes the day stage in first place scratch.

But that will not be enough: a mediocre result at the Rallye du Beaujolais deprives Fred of the victory in the Challenge Central Team 2015, won by Jerôme Putin on the handlebars of his Triumph 675 Street Triple.

The day ends quietly despite some galleys, however, especially for Vincent Victorien and Julien Lebugle on the Kawasaki 1100 GPZ sidecar n ° 23, who crashed heavily at the start of the course and will be evacuated to the hospital….

Good recovery to them, as well as to Vincent Demont (Honda 650 XR R) who crashed in the special and fell several meters below the road … The rider came out with only a few bruises, but the bike will not be recovered at the bottom of the hole that the next day by the assistance !

Night stage and classifications

The initial schedule is respected and it is at 9:00 p.m. sharp that the first competitor sets off for the two night loops.

Among those registered for the full event (day and night), Franck Coudert is missing! Finishing the first stage in 7th position, hampered by a capricious clutch on his Ducati 1200 Multistrada, he preferred to throw in the towel and not continue the race.

This night, the star’s name is Benoît Heintz, pilot of the KTM 690 SMCR n ° 117. He flew over everyone and obtained the best times on each of the two passages in the special in front of Pascal Poulios on the handlebars of his Honda 600 Hornet, sticking him 1.1 seconds in the first and 5.2 in the second (3’55, 7 against 3’56.8 in the first pass and 3’51.4 against 3’56.6 in the second) !

Side-cars side, the Laur / Ferrieu crew at the controls of their Choda KTM RC8 team won three specials out of the four: they lost the scratch of the last by 9 tenths in favor of the Roland Gouraud and Jimmy Bouvron crew, fastest time on their Choda Kawasaki ZX12-R.

The night passes more quietly than the day, especially in terms of falls and delays that the latter will have caused. It is therefore in a spirit that is as relaxed as ever that this beautiful rally which deserves the palm of sympathy ends. !

In the final classification of the 8th Volcanoes rally, Benoît Heintz (KTM 690 SMCR) takes the scratch victory ahead of Pascal Poulios (Honda 600 Hornet) and Emmanuel Gonzales (Suzuki 650 SVS 3).

This beautiful organization will certainly reveal vocations of rallymen … and rallywomen since Marlène Dallemagne, driver of the Honda 750 Africatwin n ° 122, victorious in the Women category ahead of Stephanie Combes (KTM 690 SMR) with the 27th position of the scratch, which projects already to align in the French championship in 2016 !

In the series "quiet rallies and initiation", next meeting on October 10 in Carpentras (84) for the third edition of the !

In the meantime, let’s hope that Option Sports Events will succeed in quickly reaching an agreement with the Alsatian authorities so that the final of the Dark Dog Rallye Moto Tour is re-established in Saverne (67) at the end of the month … We should know that very quickly. so … stay tuned !

Marcus HIMSELF

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