Competitors N&G « 2007 Edition «
A final bouquet for .... Firmenich!
Wednesday February 14th – Press Release no. 4 – 3rd leg
Mondron… suspension. On Tuesday, at the start of the rally’s final leg, along the Chamrousse circuit, Jean-Pierre Mondron and Freddy Macq (Porsche 911 Carrera no. 14), ranked fourth overall and the only team to have performed without a single flaw, ran into some serious problems with their suspension system. Forced to go out and buy a brand new torsion beam 60 km from Aix-en-Provence, the Belgian driver missed the day’s first two Regularity Sectors. “When we arrived at the finish live of the third RS, the check point was already gone!” he explained over lunch at the col de la Machine pass. Luckily it was still open, though it was quite a disappointment since we could have easily come in among the top three teams or even won the event based on our performance, even today.”
Pescarolo, part-time worker. Absent on Tuesday for professional reasons, Henri Pescarolo was back at the wheel of his “berlinette” today. To the delight of the many spectators gathered in the natural stands overlooking the Lans-en-Vercors circuit the switch over was splendidly smooth for Eric Comas and his (part-time) driver… a dazzling finish for this 53rd Snow & Ice event.
Ardenne stables by teams. Take this year’s winners’ podium and flip it upside-down. That will give you the team ranking results for this 53rd Snow & Ice Rally. Thanks to the Dutchmen Dolk, Marcel Laval and Michel Clojans, the Ardenne stables won the ranking by teams, followed by the Kronos Porsche Historic Team (Mondron, Martin and Lopes) and Comas Historic Racing.
…ancia Italia. Among the victims of the Lans-en-Vercors circuit, Alain Gabriel Titan and Christian Bonhomme’s Lancia Fulvia, pulled a “straight ahead” in the third and final lap of this last of the rally’s RS before slipping off the circuit altogether with a “black eye” on the right and a souvenir along the edge of the icy circuit which read “…ancia Italia”.
The Austin Healey gang. What a wild group that tight-knit gang from Brussels is indeed! Patrick Van Heurck, Damien de Harlez, Etienne Peeters, Christophe Vermijden, Charles-Philippe Pecher, Philippe Moortgat, Stéphane Verbeeck and Gert Beets provided non-stop entertainment for all with an unbeatable show on each RS but also at each meal, and especially at the bar.
Mini ice, mini slips and slides… major snow banks! The Lans-en-Vercors circuit, the stage for the final RS of the 2007 Snow & Ice Rally, was the setting for a few rather comedic performances. While Christian Odin and Pierre Buffet wowed the audience at first with some rather impressive results in terms of both speed and regularity, they seem to have let their confidence get the best of them and their little golden Morris Cooper S ended up in the snow drift on the last lap. Stuck inside, Buffet took the wheel and his driver got out and pushed ‘til they were back safely on track, but not without a few slips and slides.
AND THIS IS WHAT THEY SAID
Charles Firmenich (Swiss/Driver): “I’m not sure if it was the Saint Valentine’s bouquet hanging in our car all day that gave us such good luck, but we sure are thrilled to have won. Marie-Claude and I took turns at the wheel and thanks to Eric Comas we have learned quite a bit about driving over the past four years. So today we’ve reaped the benefits…”Alain Lopes (Belgian/Driver): “You can’t win ‘em all! It’s just that now I have to explain it to my co-pilot. He was all stressed out because it had been so long since he’d been in a race car. But with the mechanical difficulties we ran into even before starting out, we should be happy that we were even able to participate in this year’s event. Despite the lack of snow, we had a fabulous time. I twas really tight there for a while with the Dutchman Dolk who’s a fierce competitor…”
Patrick Zaniroli (French/Organiser): “Despite the weather which didn’t really lend itself to much slipping or sliding, this 53rd edition kept all its promises. As we’ve seen in the past, the finest racers from the Monte Carlo took advantage of this Snow & Ice event to seek revenge. Right up to the last RS, the rankings were incredibly tight and the title was won by just a few points. What more could we ask for?”
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