Competition-wise: Final sprint: down to the wire

4×4 Class turned upside-down

The favorites in 4×4 Class have fallen due to mechanical problems. During the first marathon, Team 246 (Carole MONTILLET / Sylvie GODEAU GELLIE - Vakkorama) were unable to perform with their usual precision. Accustomed to driving perfect straight lines, the vehicle’s reduced capabilities forced them to plot a few curves. But the great dune specialist turned in quite a performance, managing to gain on Team 153 (Fabienne GALIDIE / Tania LIO-MARTINEZ - MM-EVENTS Sàrl) by almost 5 km. The team of Carole Montillet and Sylvie Freche are capable of anything! Starting in 6th place after the first marathon, they managed to end the competition in the second spot.

Ditto for Team 202 (Jeanette JAMES / Emmanuelle TARQUINI DOS SANTOS - Bumper Off Road Jeep), who had been having trouble with their front suspension for the past two days. But unlike 246, the Chegaga dunes finished them off with a penalty of 2 km. But they took it well: “I did this Rallye in a different spirit. My teammate and I lived the Rallye we wanted to live. Despite her disease, she did some amazing things.” Emmanuelle suffers from occipital neuralgia, about which she wants raise awareness. She continued, “I am very honoured that Jeanette put her confidence in me. Whatever spot we end up in, we’ll be happy to have done it.”

As for 107 (Stéphanie PERUSSE / Anne-Marie BORG - Bleu Blanc Rouge communication), the leaders going into this final leg, they broke their axle on the first day of this marathon, and had no choice but to call mechanical assistance, which knocked them out of contention. That left the field wide open to some serious competition: Team 238 (Hélène GRAND'EURY / Charlotte ZUCCONI - VAL THORENS/VALTHOPARC) seized the chance to grab first place with a superb leg, boosted at the prospect of a podium finish. “We had time to really stick to our lines. We made up for the huge blunder we made in the first marathon that cost us 5 kilometres. We’re all within a few hundred metres today: it’s crazy when you think about it: this morning between 3X and 4X, we left with Carole Montillet but we didn’t follow the same line and then we compared our odometers and we had the same number of kilometres. It’s insane.”  While 246 managed to beat 153 in the dunes, a stoked 238 widened its lead over the same 153 (Fabienne GALIDIE / Tania LIO-MARTINEZ - MM-EVENTS Sàrl) by daring to take a hard-to-find pass between checkpoints 8 and 9. This lost 153 and its excellent navigator Fabienne Galidie close to 2km: in this extremely close game, that is a big deal. “Today was very long and very hard. Our engine was acting up, we stalled countless times, we also got stuck a lot. In fact, I’d like to thank 146 who accompanied us through the dunes.” The driver, Tania, was so happy to reach checkpoint 5X yesterday evening that she did a donut in glee. Oops! A few extra metres, but it felt so good! “We didn’t think we’d get this far: we were aiming for the top 20. Honestly, we’re proud of ourselves because we really had a hard time,” continued Tania.

Tonight 238 emerged victorious, a team with two 2nd-place finishes to their name. In second position was Team 246, with 153 sitting in third. And as night fell over the bivouac, even the most hardened Gazelles had tears in their eyes. Fatigue, pressure release, joy and disappointment mingled on the finish line.

Baby Gazelles all grown up

Team 211 (Chloé PIRZKAL / Mireille VIDUEIRA), leaders in First Participation Class going into today’s marathon, were utterly devastated: after many exploits and just 104 penalty km at the end of Leg 5 (the best of the best were between 57 and 60 km), they ran out of time and missed the last two checkpoints after stopping to help other Gazelles in the dunes. However, their performance throughout the Rallye had been so strong that today’s setback only dropped them by one spot. They ended up in second place, switching with Team 139 (Léa GOULLIEUX / Laetitia BERTIN - EUROPCAR) who were delighted to grab the win from under their noses. Finally, Team 311 (Christelle PERRIN / Lucie FAGEDET) completed the podium by hanging onto their 3rd position.

Team 243 (Schanel Bakkouche / Pauline DUCRUET) were crying on the finish line, caught in an almost childlike joy: they were just baby Gazelles when they got here, but tonight they are true Gazelles: “We’re crying because we had so many great moments and troubles; the one makes up for the other. When we’re down we think of the checkpoints we found… The time passed too quickly! From CP to CP, we were more and more proud of ourselves. It showed us that when you’re not sure, you just have to go for it. And when you think you can, then you have to go all the way,” declared Pauline Ducruet and Schanel Bakkouche before returning their tracking devices and collecting their cell phones. After that they raised a glass of Tsarine champagne with the other Gazelles. Tonight is for celebrating!

No surprises in Quad Class

Betty Kraft and her teammate Sonia Baudouin-Guérard, Team 28 (Elisabeth (Betty) KRAFT / Sonia BAUDOIN-GUERARD - POLARIS FRANCE (quads) won this 28th edition with disconcerting ease and a lead over their nearest contenders that grew every day. For the quad and jet ski champion, this will be her 12th win out of 13 participations. It doesn’t get much better than that. « We’ve been working hard right from day 1, we did everything we could to be as precise as possible. That’s why I never get tired of this rally: it’s a brilliant game,” she commented on the finish line, giving Sonia a kiss on the cheek with a “Bravo Poulette!” They are followed by teams 27 (Prune SALTI / Elisa BOULAND - ESAF) and 26 (Amélie DELACHESNAIS / Emilie CAZAL).

312: emotion to spare

They were dumbstruck, tears in their eyes, at the finish line. Too many contradictory feelings and a hard time believing that it’s true: “We can’t wait to go sign our road sheet: that will prove that we did a good job,” exclaimed Laetitia of Team 312 (Laetitia GIRAUD / Sarah SOURBIER - FRUIT4FIT). Bravo! They came in ahead of Team 313 (Solen KERLEROUX / Carine POISSON - RUN FUN / MTECH), who also had a superb Rallye, achieving the goal they had set themselves at the wheel of their Zoé: to prove that electric vehicles have their place at major sports events!

e-Gazelles

Finally, in e-Gazelle Class, Team 504 (Kiera CHAPLIN / Jazmin GRIMALDI - Saint Honoré) experienced a long day of problem after problem: it was not their marathon yet they dug in their heels, refusing to call for mechanical assistance to get put of the sand and spending 5 hours on one single stretch of their route. Stuck, unstuck… They managed to finish in 3rd place, behind 502 (Mélanie MOR / Delphine MIQUEL - ENEDIS) and 503 (Natacha BORDRY / Clothilde HAMION - Crédit Suisse) who had a comfortable lead over their followers for a well-deserved win.