Valais VHC: First Block, then Blanchard 🎥

STAR AS TRAILER Youtube star Ken Block drove ahead of the VHC field in the Valais. The winner here was Christian Blanchard in a Ford Escort. On the first stage, former overall winner Erwin Keller shone. As the short action video from Maxi Sound74 Rally Records of the circuit in the Sion barracks shows, pro Ken Block put on a good show [...]

Editorial - October 22, 2019

As the short action video by Maxi Sound74 Rally Records from the circuit in the Sion barracks shows, pro Ken Block put on a good show. The Gymkhana and Youtube star from the USA drove a vehicle specially designed for drifts based on a Ford Escort Cosworth, which does not comply with any FIA regulations.

Crowd puller
As spectacular as this looked - the fastest drivers with the following historic rally cars certainly did not have to hide. They also put their backs into it and had to risk more than the American, who was engaged as a prominent driver out of competition. Many spectators came especially for him, and the VHC teams that started immediately after him certainly benefited from this attention.

Because the Swiss Rally Cup classification had already been decided in their category, they were more or less free to go to work. Except for the pièce de résistance of the 60th Rallye du Valais 2019, the SS3 "Croix-de-Coeur", which was held in darkness, the historic teams completed the same length course as the modern ones. Of the 18 teams from five nations that started, only eight finished in the classification.

On the short opening stage at the gates of Martigny, Erwin Keller offered a spectacular two-wheel performance. Immediately afterwards, he rode a fantastic SS best time (photo: Laurent Misbauer).

Erwin Keller as fast as the moderns
Since his pursuer Eddy Bérard had not registered for the final round, Marc Valliccioni was already certain as the 2019 Swiss VHC Rally Champion before the start. The Corsican with a Swiss license, who has made his home in Valais, already fell behind on the second and longest SS "Les Cols" due to a time-consuming puncture.

Thus, the Zurich duo Erwin Keller/Dominique Juple took the lead with a likewise optimal BMW M3 thanks to a hammer time over the mountain (19th place overall!) with a lead of almost 30 seconds. A 10-second penalty for an early start on SS1 in Martigny did nothing to change this for the time being.

Keller's speed, even at over 60 years of age, is no coincidence: with Ronny Hofmann as navigator in a Group A Mitsubishi Galant VR4, he was the only German-Swiss to ever win the race, which has been held since 1981 as the Rallye du Valais (previously Rallye du Vin), 28 years ago.

Christian Blanchard drove his Ford Escort RS1800 BDA around the curves as spectacularly as Ken Block (Photo: Peter Wyss).

Fear rode with
On Friday morning, however, both M3 teams had thoroughly fouled up with dry tires in the rain. As a result, the German Swiss in particular lost a lot of time to the fastest Escort drivers Rizzi and Blanchard.

Erwin Keller: "I had mounted used semislicks with a tread that was no longer very good. I could neither accelerate nor brake properly and spun about three times. After that I was scared and didn't risk anything."

Marc Valliccioni took the Swiss VHC title in 2019, Olivier Burri the ninth overall victory at the RIV (Photo: Peter Wyss).

Escort duo ahead
Thus Christian Blanchard in the Ford Escort RS1800 and Bruno Rizzi in the older Mk1, both with potent BDA engines, were the clear front runners after two stages, followed by Guy Trolliet's Porsche 911 3.2, which was also well driven. Nothing changed in this respect until the finish.

The two BMW teams then failed to advance towards the podium on the final stage. After the service in Sion, Erwin Keller's team had to push the M3 to the parc fermé, where it could not be started again on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, Valliccioni withdrew his car at midday on Saturday because of suspicious noises on the chassis.