The final hillclimb of the year in Normandie was the Course de Côte de Pourville. Fabien Ponchant concluded a great first season in the Dallara F302 with one more victory. Ponchant was the fastest driver in all four race sessions. Alain Le Sausse was second quickest in one race session but could hold on to second place. Instead it was Bertrand Lassalle who claimed the runner-up spot. Geoffray Carcreff became the new Coupe de France winner for touringcars last week. At Pourville he concluded his year with one more dominant victory.
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The wide and safe circuit provides an excellent opportunity to test different cars. As you can see in the final results below a lot of drivers appear in unfamiliar cars. For the third time in four editions Alban Thomas was the quickest driver. With his Dallara F306 that he shared with Cecile Cante, Thomas set the fastest time of the day already in the very first race. Fabien Bourgeon debuted in the sportscar class at the Bresse Circuit. He was driving the Olivier Augusto Norma M20 FC. During the day Bourgeon kept improving his times and he eventually finished second overall. Third was for the winner of last year, Didier Brun, who was closely followed by Damien Chamberod. Miguel Vidal and Sébastien Chabin shared a Dallara F301 and finished fifth and seventh respectively. They were split by Raynald Thomas who finished sexth overall. The brother of the winner also shared his car with Jean-Pierre Bouchard. Among the other class winners we find some interesting names. David Guillaumard jumped in the Tatuus Renault of Didier Chaumont and immediately won the class. This season Antoine Uny was active in Group N. But at the Circuit de Bresse he drove the Seat Leon Supercopa of Philippe Marion. Uny won Group A and was also the quickest touringcar driver.
Christian Astier dominated the touringcars in a similar fashion as Debels dominated in the sportscars. Astier was the quickest with a lead of almost 2 seconds over Jonathan Vargas-Beltramon and David Rebotier. The Pujada Ordino – Arcalís is the only hillclimb in Andorra. The event counts towards a number of championships. The fastest drivers came from French Hillclimb Championship Division 2. Dimitri Pereira wins the event and the championship. Emeline Breda was second quickest while Yves Tholy completed the podium. In the touringcars Ronald Garces was by far the quickest driver and is also the new champion. Eric Michon and Michel Lamiscarre join him on the podium. In the Spanish Hillclimb Championship many titles were already certain before the event. Only Category 2 was still open. Cesar Rodriguez won the event in front of Jonathan Alvarez. That is also how they finished in the championship. In category 1 Javier Villa was already certain of the title which is why he did not travel to Andorra. Pedro Salvador was the only driver in this category but he retired. In Category 3 new champion José Antonio Aznar took another victory. The Ordino – Arcalís Hillclimb also counted towards the Catalunya Hillclimb Championship. Because of the political situation there were not many drivers present. Edgar Montella, Ramon Plaus and Gerard De La Casa were the three fastest drivers in this championship. But of course all three have the Andorrese nationality.
In June this hillclimb also took place. Back then it counted towards the French Hillclimb Championship Division 2. Dimitri Pereira won that event just in front of Nicolas Verdier. In the final these two drivers were again the strongest. Already in the very first race Verdier went under Pereira’s winning time from June. After a long battle on Sunday it proved to be the winning time. So Verdier won his first Coupe de France. Pereira was the runner-up this time. The best driver from the PACA region Jérémy Debels completed the podium in third. Back in June the touringcar podium was Ronald Garces, Joël Cazalens and Geoffray Carcreff. These three drivers formed the podium again in the final. They would however be in a different order. Now it was Carcreff who set the fastest time with Garces in second and Cazalens in third.
Touringcar champion Pierre Courroye was not present in Limonest. This opened up a great battle for victory in GTTS. Christian and Philippe Schmitter battled together with Yannick Poinsignon for the last trophy of the season. In the end it was Christian Schmitter who took the biggest prize. He was also the winner in the very first event of the season when Pierre Courroye also did not compete.
The Course de Côte d’Arques-la-Bataille returned after a one year break. Compared to the previous editions the track was modified. The challenging final S corner had been demolished and replaced with a big roundabout. This made the track wider and faster and that was not to everyone’s liking. For Bertrand Lassalle it did not matter much. He had won the last six editions and was again victorious. Alban Lapotre was second despite some small mistakes. Geoffrey Carcreff placed his powerful Scora Maxi third overall.
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