In their words!

First Participation – 4×4

Team 139 (Léa GOULLIEUX / Laetitia BERTIN - EUROPCAR): hand in hand, the two Gazelles admit their surprise: “We never thought we could do it. It’s a huge victory for our friends, our families and our sponsors, and a nice victory for our friendship, which has lasted since childhood. This rally reinforced all that. The Gazelle rally is amazing because everyone does it and lives it differently. Everyone has their own personal story.”

Beauty Car Challenge

Team 202 (Jeanette JAMES / Emmanuelle TARQUINI DOS SANTOS - Bumper Off Road Jeep): “This year, I did the Rallye a little differently,” explains several-time Rallye winner Jeanette James. “Not to win, but to provide the experience for my teammate, who has a rare disease, occipital neuralgia. She did some amazing things during this edition. The rankings weren’t very important this year. As long as we made it to the end, any position would do,” continues Jeanette. Her teammate, Emmanuelle, is happy and“so honoured to have done this rally with a driver like Jeanette, who put her trust in me.”

Team 238 (Hélène GRAND'EURY / Charlotte ZUCCONI - VAL THORENS/VALTHOPARC): at the end of the last day of competition, they weren’t sure they had won. Now the results are official. The team finished in second place in last year’s edition. “This is our year! We worked better, we were more accurate, and we can tell we’ve gotten better, especially at trajectories and optimizing exit points. The experts forced us to push ourselves above and beyond our limits.”

Quad/Moto/SSV

Team 28 (Elisabeth (Betty) KRAFT / Sonia BAUDOIN-GUERARD - POLARIS FRANCE (quads) may know this rally by heart, but that does not decrease the pleasure they have in doing it, year after year. 2018 marks the 12th victory for Betty Kraft in 13 editions! “Her great strength is to never let go,” explains Betty’s teammate Sonia. “We’re happy to win, but our greatest satisfaction come from the pleasure of driving in the dunes, of finding a way across a terrain that looks impossible. Our greatest enjoyment is still out on the terrain. Thank you to the organizers and the Gazelles who supported us in our search for sponsors.”

Crossover

Team 312 (Laetitia GIRAUD / Sarah SOURBIER - FRUIT4FIT): “This Rallye has been an amazing experience. It’s a complete break from our daily lives. There are so many intense feelings: joy, pride, sharing. We all supported each other: we didn’t win this by ourselves. We’re all winners. We had to call for mechanical assistance two days ago. After the anger and the disappointment, it gave us a boost. This victory is the cherry on top. In fact, we didn’t really come for the competition. This rally is a life lesson, and what we have learned is that nothing should be taken for granted; you’ve got to savour and enjoy the moment, and give it everything you’ve got.”

E-Gazelles

Team 503 (Natacha BORDRY / Clothilde HAMION - Crédit Suisse): Clothilde and Natacha are smiling from ear to ear on the finish line and waving their Swiss flag. “We’re in heaven. It was important for us to represent sustainable development and our sponsors. We had so many intense emotions, so much fatigue. It was a huge challenge. We really worked as a team, which brought us even closer together.”