Ypres Rally

Much like Le Mans it had been 13 years but our 2nd visit proved to be fantastic and beyond what we did before. In the rally it was heartbreak for Kevin Abbring & Seb Marshall (208 T16) who led from stage 1 to stage 13 when a mechanical failure saw their rally ended. So it was Freddy Loix & Johan Gitsels (Fabia S2000) who took win number 9 for the popular Belgian, in the 50th running of the event. The margin was comfortable over Cedric Cherain & Andre Leyh (Fiesta R5) in 2nd place and Sepp Wiegand & Frank Christian (Fabia S2000) who completed the podium.

Le Mans 24hr

It may have been 13 years but the circuit de Sarthe delivered in a big way. An epic race saw Toyota and Porsche lead for portions of the race but it was Audi who took not just the victory but a 1-2 finish after it had all looked so bad after a few hours into the race when the no.3 Audi was involved in a huge accident which also involved Toyota no.8. It was the Audi of Marcel Fässler,  André Lotterer & Benoît Tréluyer that took victory which was finally settled 3 hours out when the last challenge of Porsche faded. With Toyota picking up a podium for their no.8 car after their no.7 had led for so much of the race early on and into the early hours.

Critérium du Dauphiné

When I left the Critérium du Dauphiné on Friday with the days stage to complete little did I know that the reign at the top of Chris Froome, of Team Sky, was soon to end. Team Sky seemed to be heading for a 4th straight win on the 2nd largest race in France after Froom took the yellow jersey on the opening stage, an indiviual time trial. The race was building to the final 2 stages but on the 6th stage Froome crashed, injurying his wrist, which left him vulnerable for the final two days. Alberto Contador (Saxo Tinkoff) took the lead on the penultimate stage as Froome suffered but on the final stage it was Andrew Talansky (Garmin) who shocked Contador to take victory by 28s.

British GT – Silverstone

Another first for us just a week after our World RallyX debut. This time it was the British GT for their 3 hour race at Silverstone, which was held in glorious sunny conditions. The track suited the Aston Martins and in the end it was the Oman Racing team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ahmad Al Harthy and Michael Caine which took victory by almost a minute. The pole sitters and reigning champions Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Jonny Adam & Andrew Howard were runners up with the Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 GT3 of Alexander Sims & Marco Attard just over 10 seconds further back. With 8 crews all completing 82 laps in the 3 hour race, including three other marques, it proved to be a very competitive and entertaining afternoon. The GT4 field were headed up by the Twisted Team Parker G55 Ginetta GT4 of Adrian Barwick & Bradley Ellis.