Road rallies – Ultimate Challenge: the route of the Ultimate Rally in 125! – The Challenge report

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Ultimate Challenge: the route of the Ultimate Rally in 125 !

Road rallies - Ultimate Challenge: the route of the Ultimate Rally in 125! - The Challenge report

The organizer of the terrible Ultimate Rally launched his own challenge: rally Avignon to Marcillat-en-Combraille in Ultimate conditions … but on a 125 cm3 ! An adventure to experience live on the web: departure tonight at 2 a.m. !

The Challenge report

02h00: Departure from the town hall square in Montfavet (Avignon). The weather is overcast but no rain. The start of the route takes place on a dry road, but very quickly we drive on a wet or even wet road (around 80% of the total route) … Obviously, we pass just after the rain … We drive at a steady pace but without stress.

Km 140: 1st petrol refueling. Our average is around 63/64 km / h, everything is fine.

Km 220: we are traveling at an average of 60 km / h but we arrive in a dense, very dense fog … 30, 40 km / h maximum! With my glasses, it’s hell until Puy-en-Velay (Km 280) where we arrive at 7:10 am, or 30 minutes late…

We are warmly welcomed by Challenge One 43, Derbi dealer, and by Gaston from MC des Guidons Vellaves. Coffee, croissants, then we try to repair one of the two Trackers installed on Bernard’s GS, my guide. Wasted effort ! We give up, especially since the other two are functioning correctly. A journalist from Awakening of Le Puy comes to join us for an interview and photos … But time passes and we leave at 7:50 am, that is to say after 40 minutes of stop.

The second part of the route is a little less difficult than the first: it is now daylight and we are printing a more sustained pace. Wet or dry road, we stay very focused and continue our effort which allows us to catch up on our delay minute by minute.

Second refueling at Brioude, then we attack a new difficult sector with very small wet and dirty roads… The BMW has trouble keeping up in technical or very wet parts while the 125 GPR is at the top: light, full of good will and with impressive handling, it allows me to keep a great pace without ruining myself physically. In total more than 4 hours of driving with intense pleasure despite its 15 horses (I must not have exceeded 110 km / h downhill, and rarely!)

12.35 p.m .: we arrive at Marcillat (03) after having recovered 20 minutes from our delay conceded before Le Puy.

In the end, by counting the 40 minutes of stopping in Le Puy and the additional 20 km linked to the detours and adding 5 to 10 minutes for a normal stop in Le Puy, we therefore arrived about 15/20 minutes late compared to the ideal time, i.e. within the additional hour provided for in our project !

Of course, it is important to specify that I knew the route and that I only hesitated a few times on the routes to take, which is a very important advantage, especially at night.

Finally, beyond the sporting aspect, the main interest of our project was to test these Trackers boxes with the perspective of using one of these solutions for the Ultimate Rally 2010… This full-scale test had the advantage of be able to be followed on the Internet live by everyone !

We will come back soon in detail to all the information collected by these units, but it appears that they can be an interesting and efficient solution to avoid cheating, by providing the race management with a complete and detailed follow-up of all the pilots, this which would be an undeniable plus in terms of security.

Thank you to all those who allowed us to carry out this test: Derbi, Motorama Montluçon, Scorpion, Xenon System, and of course Bernard my guide !

Patrick BOURNISIEN

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