Rallye de Wallonie

After a three year absence we were back in Namur for the Rallye de Wallonie and there was a host of Rally2 and R5 cars at the top of the running order. Added on top of that were the GT cars with 6 Porsche 997 GT3’s and a pair of Alpine A110’s too. Stéphane Lefebvre & Xavier Portier (C3 Rally2) were the fastest crew through the opening 5 stages to open up a healthy lead. Two more fastest stage times followed on the opening day giving them a 18.3s lead over Adrian Fernémont & Samuel Maillen (Fabia Rally2 Evo), who had won the last two editions of the rally. Gino Bux & Nicolas Gilsoul (Fabia Rally2 Evo) were 25s back in 3rd overall.

Rallye de Wallonie

A total of 86 crews started from Jambes for the 36th running of the Rallye de Wallonie and with 22 R5’s, an S2000, 4 Porsche 997 GT3’s and a whole host of group N and modified cars, there was plenty of quality. Sébastien Bedoret & Thomas Walbrecq (Fabia R5) took the first stage before Cédric Cherain & Xavier Portier (Polo R5) took the 2nd run through the Citadel to take an early lead. Adrian Fernémont & Samuel Maillen (Fabia R5) were fastest through SS4, following the cancellation of SS3 and another fastest time on SS6 was enough to see them take the lead. With another 8 stages to go on Saturday, 4 more stage wins saw Fernémont hold a 17s going in to the final day.

Rallye de Wallonie

Last year saw our first visit to the Rallye de Wallonie and we could not resist a return visit. A total of 22 stages saw a tough battle at the top. After the opening pair of stages round the citadel in Namur, Adrian Fernémont & Samuel Maillen (Fabia R5) held a slender lead over Cédric Cherain & Filip Cuvelier (Fabia R5) with 2017 Belgian Rally Champions Vincent Verschueren & Veronique Hostens (Fabia R5) completing the top 3. As the real meat of the rally started Verschueren picked up the pace and by lunchtime had taken over at the top with Fernémont slipping down to 3rd place behind Cherain.

Rallye de Wallonie

A truly excellent few days in the Namur area of Belgium saw Kevin Abbring & Pieter Tsjoen (208 T16) take victory by just over 3/4 of a minute from Ghislain de Mevius & Johan Jalet (Fabia R5) with Vincent Verschueren & Veronique Hostens (Fabia R5) just over 7 seconds further back, completing the podium. Abbring had been coming under pressure during Saturday from Verschueren who had got the gap down to just over 10 seconds but then a minute dropped late on saw Abbring manage the gap through the final day to take victory. De Mevius drove excellent and picked up places as others faltered whilst Verschueren only just took 3rd place by 0.5 seconds from Guillame Dilley & Andre Leyh (i20 R5).