Chablais: Victory for Carron - and the sport
FINALLY ACTION AGAIN The Rallye du Chablais ended the long standstill in national motor racing. This alone was a success. In sporting terms, Sébastien Carron swung to the top in the Skoda Fabia. The new Alpine R-GT were an enrichment. The biggest applause went to the organizers from Vaud, with Eric Jordan at the helm, for their courage in taking part in the event despite the epidemiologically [...]
The biggest applause went to the organizers from Vaud, headed by Eric Jordan, for their courage in holding on to the 17th Rallye du Chablais despite the epidemiologically uncertain situation in Switzerland.
Thanks to a strict Covid 19 protocol, it was officially approved, ending a nearly 600-day hiatus in Swiss rallying on Friday - felicitations!
Beginning with horror
Unfortunately, it began on Friday with three accidents, so that the teams with modern vehicles could only complete one passage each instead of two on the two stages of the first leg on best time.
We wish the couple Patrick Bagnoud and Yvelyse Renna, who had a serious accident on the Col de la Croix with their Citroën C2 R2, a speedy recovery and a full recovery!
Carron untouchable
Nothing changed in the hierarchy. Sébastien Carron and co-driver Lucien Revaz dominated the action at will in a Skoda Fabia R5. Only in the last two of ten special stages on Saturday evening did the man from Valais give way to his canton and brand colleague Mike Coppens.
He had already bought the guts of the latter on Friday. There was a reason for that.
Mike Coppens: "I don't like these highway-like stages over the Col de la Croix and Tour d'Aï. Instead, there were some really nice, typical rally stages on Saturday. But I couldn't really attack Carron anymore because of that."
Ballinari not yet in shape
After 124.46 SS kilometers, Carron/Revaz crossed the finish line in Aigle 37 seconds ahead of Coppens/Degout. At 2:48.2 minutes, the gap of Ivan Ballinari, the reigning Swiss champion since 2018, was quite significant.
"Balli" only placed ahead of Coppens on the first timed SS2 at Col de la Croix. The Amag employee from Lugano, who contrary to the starting list continued to compete with a Skoda instead of a VW Polo, seemed to lack practice.
The Ticino native even had to fend off R5 newcomer Jo Michellod in another Fabia for a long time, who was in third place overall at times. The Junior Swiss Champion of 2019 already practiced at smaller rallies abroad, but paid for his ambition with a slip on the SS Collombey-Muraz on Saturday morning, which had become treacherous due to melting snow. His car could no longer be freed from the snow field....
Beautiful Alpine quartet
Thus, not undeservedly, Olivier Gillet moved up to fourth place overall with the fastest of the four Alpine A 110 RGTs. Gillet even achieved two third-best SS times.
Sergio Pinto, previously driving a Honda Civic Type R, and two Frenchmen also stepped on the gas in their Alpine cars and were a real asset.
Henny like the old days
A similar role as pike in the R5 carp pond was played by former champion Cyril Henny in an already almost historic Renault Clio S1600. Behind Joël Rappaz in a Ford Fiesta R5 and class newcomer Alain Blaser in a Hyundai i20 R5, Henny finished seventh overall.
Lacking practice since the Rallye du Valais in October 2019, Jean-Marc Salomon did not finish higher than 8th overall in his Fiesta R5.
Drama in the Clio teams
After the accident of Ismaël Vuistiner, happened at the same place as the one of Michellod, David Erard with co-driver Sarah Junod in one of the new Renault Clio Rallye 5 won not only the Junior-SM classification, but also in the Clio Swiss Trophy.
Sacha Althaus and Jérémie Toedtli fought for second place until the end, which Althaus won by six tenths with the better time in the last SS.
Triumph in a triumph
With 32 teams, the VHC group provided the largest field ever at an SS Rally round. The individual positions were correspondingly controversial.
After technical problems with the fastest BMW M3 and Ford Escort RS, Frenchman Stéphane Poudrel triumphed in a briskly moving Triumph TR7.
His victory was clear, with a 3:45-minute lead over the Swiss Patrice Perche (Porsche 911 3.0), who was fastest in the end, and five minutes over the Frenchman Pierre Vivier (BMW M3).
In just three weeks, the revived Rallye-SM continues with a new round in France (Rallye des Bornes) added to the calendar. It will represent new territory for everyone.
