Last weekend, the Endurance 6 Heures V de V du GPFH race took place in the context of the KENNOL Grand Prix de France Historique meeting on the Paul Ricard circuit. This rendezvous, which marked the start of the V de V Sports season, saw victory in the overall classification going to the Tiga SC 79 entered by the Palmyr team as well as the exceptional participation of Jean Alesi at the wheel of the SMG team’s Lotus Elan 26R in front of more than 50,000 spectators!
The first endurance race of the season reserved for VHCs (Historic Racing Cars), welcomed several newcomers among the cars entered starting with the Ford GT 40 run by the Hyracing team and entrusted to the Franco-Belgian crew of Brice Pinea and Olivier Muytjens. After getting to grips with the Provençal layout, the latter clinched pole position in the qualifying session held on Friday evening in half-daytime and half-nightime conditions identical to those the entrants would have to cope with in the race the next day from 18:00 to midnight.
The Ford GT 40 took advantage of its position at the front of the grid, its powerful V8 engine and the skills of its crew to shoot into the lead after the green flag was waved to signal the start of the race by Yannick Dalmas, 4-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and former F1 driver with 21 F1 Grands Prix to his name for the Larrousse and AGS teams.
Behind the Ford, the Tiga SC 83 and SC 79 prototypes entered respectively by the Rosbiff Hyett and Palmyr teams led the chase closely followed by the Porsche 911 3.0 SC run by the Quarkus outfit. Just as battle was joined at the front the Tiga SC 83 slowed to a crawl and then stopped beside the track. Its young driver, Charlie Hyett, had just made a beginner’s mistake as when he decided to switch on the headlights he actuated the circuit breaker on his car. This led to the loss of 45 minutes and later on starter problems, which dropped the British squad back to 16th place at the chequered flag. On lap 22, the Porsche 911 3.0 SC entered by the Team Quarkus for Damien Alfano/Maxime Tandel/Alexandre Boutin/Renaldo Da Cunha in 3rd place overall ran into trouble with a blocked accelerator and it tumbled down the time sheets.
There was another major upset at the head of the field. After leading for the first 34 laps, the Ford GT40 stopped at its pit where the team discovered an alternator issue that dashed its hopes of victory. After spending 1h 30m at its pit for repairs the GT 40 rejoined the track and finished third in GT historiques.
The foregoing incidents left the Palmyr team’s Tiga SC 79 driven by Swiss-Mçonegasque crew Marc Faggionato/Christian Vaglio-Giors/Gislain Genecand in a lead they would hold to the finish. After six hours racing, and a closely-fought battle among the leading trio, the prototype came out on top with 1m 33s in hand over the family BMW of the Chateaux Sport Auto squad, which was recompensed by victory in the touring category after a race combining performance and reliability. Into third place came the Porsche 964 Cup run by the Simon Racing team for Germans Jurgen Pentz/Klaus Landgraf/Dennis Fetzer, which also triumphed in the GTS category from the 911 3.0 RS of Le Duigou Racing driven by Philippe Burel/Bob Arezina/Patrice Chapon and the Porsche 964 Cup in the hands of Corsican outfit, E Cupulate Ninjas.
In the Saloon Car category, victory went to the TVR Griffith 200 entered by Team V de V driven by Eric Van de Vyver/Guillaume Maillard/ Patrick Brossard after a great scrap with the Wassermann Racing BMW 323i in the hands of Eric Wassermann/Eric Baumard/Thierry Mathez who retired due to gearbox failure. Finally, the Porsche 911 3.0 SC crewed by Christophe Gaultier/Stéphane Deshayes/Mickael Bossuet entered by the Flatsix Le Mans Circuit outfit filled second place in this category.
In the GT category the battle for first place boiled down to a scrap between the Porsche 944 S2 entered by the Cudini Racing Team for Arnold Noret/Philippe Vigneron/Jacques Colibet and the Skoal Bandit 944 Turbo of Hugo Mezard/Antoine Doquin/Emilien Chayia. The latter finally emerged victorious after the first-mentioned suffered exhaust problems. Third place went to the Porsche 911 3.0 SC of Philippe Achard/Philippe Martin/Jean-Yves Grandidier.
And last but not least, note the success in GT historiques of the WKMR team’s Porsche 911 2.0 entrusted to the father/son trio of Stéphane, Mathieu and Baptiste Guyot-Sionnest from the E-Type Jaguar entered by Jean-Paul Petit/ Pascal Gerbout/Jacques Roucolle under the Cudini Racing Team banner.
GUEST STAR JEAN ALESI
On the circuit on which he made his F1 debut and of which he was recently elected president, Jean Alesi joined in the fun and competed in his first endurance race reserved for historic racing cars. The man from Avignon with 201 F1 grands prix under his belt joined up with his friend and comrade in arms Philippe Gache, himself a former racing driver who achieved numerous successes in different categories. They shared a 1965 Lotus Elan with father and son duo Jean-Pierre and Stéphane Richelmi, two brilliant drivers from Monaco. They qualified in 10th place and the English GT made a fantastic start to the race in the hands of Jean-Pierre Richelmi followed by Gache who managed to bring their car up into second place overall by lap 35 where they stayed for 14 tours.
Unfortunately, the Lotus was forced to pit where a ruptured silent bloc on the rear axle was diagnosed. It broke the left-hand rear wishbone as well as causing some peripheral damage that would have taken too long to repair so the car wouldn’t have been able to rejoin in a competitive position. Thus Alesi, who had proved in practice that he had lost none of his speed, was unable to get behind the wheel of the Lotus bearing the number 27 for the occasion, the one the French driver had used when he drove for the Scuderia Ferrari in F1. He was obviously disappointed, but at the same time delighted to have taken part in this adventure. In addition, he was able to see that his huge popularity remained intact among the big crowd who came to salute him.
Link to the live broadcast on Youtube (The starting procedure begins at 7:26:26)
Next rendezvous for V de V Sports on the Catalonian circuit for the 6 Hours of Barcelona organised on Saturday and Sunday 20 – 21 May in the context of the Espiritu de Montjuïc meeting.
Contact Médias : Henri Suzeau : hsuzeau@ontheroadconsulting.net – Tél.: +33 (0)6 08 26 90 56
Contact V de V Sports : Laure Van de Vyver : +33 (0)6 28 53 12 99 – Éric Van de Vyver : +33 (0)6 09 11 28 69
| Crédits photos : Tchaul31 Photographies https://tchaul.wixsite.com/tch31 |
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