BRC / RD3 / YPRES RALLY 2023
05/07/2023The Motorsport UK British Rally Championship would venture a little further away from home for the third round of its 2023 season. For those competitors who were both brave enough and had the budget to contest the Ardeca Ypres Rally. Approx 220 kilometres of some of Belgium’s finest stretches of tarmac rallying stages would await them across the channel in and around the Historic town of Ypres.
An event which has made its mark internationally at the top flight FIA World Rally Championships in recent years has appeared on the British Rally Championships calendar before, yet still causes some controversy amongst some rallying folk. Regardless of opinion, those that have made the trip across to such an event in any capacity in the past, would both understand and appreciate the reasoning for its inclusion.
“We don’t get the spectators like we do here, the atmosphere and the vibe is unlike any rally back home” BRC Championship manager Reece Tarren explains “For the competitors, it’s a different challenge, this is our longest event of the year at just over 200km, we’ve got big cuts and it’s quick…. it’s just like nothing we’ve got back in the UK”.
Photo By Andrew Scott (BRC)
With the uptake of closed roads stage rallying back home in blighty beginning to bear fruit, there are however a handful of UK events already showing real promise. The Rali Ceredigion which burst onto the scene back in 2019 comes to mind here as being the stand-out event which raised the bar last year; this event is very youthful however, and it is already included in the BRC calendar once again this year.
“It’s a tough event, I think there’s a single 26km stage” Tarren goes on to say “This is one of the best rallys that’s currently on mainland Europe, just an hour away from Calais, Dover or via the tunnel.”
There is no doubt that if our current crop of up-and-coming rallying talent is to gain that valuable experience on some of the best rallys, whilst also having the opportunity to pitch themselves up against some of Europe’s emerging talent, then it totally makes sense for a single trip outside of our own back garden once a year.
Last time out on the Jim Clark, Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux dominated from the opening night of the rally, building up a sizable and unbeatable lead over the first loop of stages which proved just too much for Irishman Kieth Cronin to even comprehend getting close to. This time out, Cronin knew it made no sense in signing up for Ypres, as Fourmaux not only lives just 30 minutes away but has also won the event twice in the past.
Naturally, the M-Sport factory-backed driver would be the favourite man in town for Ypres, not just for the British Championship win, but the overall rally win; however in stepped another Frenchman, Stéphane Lefebvre who also registered for the British Championship and would wear the No1 seed on the doors of his Citroën C3 Rally2.
Lefebvre, who won the WRC2 category here last year showed his intent right from the pre-event qualifying session and carried that speed on into the opening 7.3km test of the rally, Westouter. By posting a time that was half a second quicker than Fourmaux and then following that up in the second longer test, Kemmelberg, Lefebvre took a further 2.7 seconds out of Fourmaux. Fourmaux hadn’t a clue where those two seconds had been lost, yet remained calm, almost as if he knew that he would be playing the long game here.
Photo: Stéphane Lefebvre | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
Following the stoppage and subsequent cancelling of SS2, Fourmaux was able to turn things around for the final two of that opening loop, clawing back a small amount of time following his two-stage wins in SS3 & 6. Lefebvre, however, was heading back to Ypres square with 1.8 seconds over Fourmaux.
Behind that battle for the rally lead, another newbie to the BRC, Belgian National Davy Vanneste who had also registered for British points was the best of the rest in his VW Polo GTi R5. He was just over 23 seconds ahead of our regular British crews, James Williams & Dai Roberts.
The Welshmen, who do have some previous experience of Ypres, was, however, melting in the cockpit of his Ford Fiesta Rally 2 as the heater got stuck on in the opening loop. To add to their woe, the pair also had to change a wheel in stage following some ditch-hugging antics.
“Our plan is to just build the speed up, we didn’t get a test in the car so that first stage was our test” Williams commented at the end of the first loop “We’re nowhere near where we need to be just yet, we’ll keep pushing it’s a long rally”.
Photo: James Williams and Dai Robers | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
Rounding out the top five and a further 24 odd seconds down on Williams was Scotsman Garry Pearson, for his first-ever attempt at the Ypres he had what he described as “a nice clean loop”. With the very capable Dan Barritt returning to the Co-Drivers seat beside him in the VW Polo GTI R5, he however did acknowledge that he had to be realistic given the challenge that the Ypres presented him for the first time “Trying to get used to my notes and trying to get used to the cuts that the guys are taking and just trying to keep it all together, to be honest”.
Photo: Garry Pearson & Dan Barritt | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
Meanwhile, in the Junior British Rally Championship, following their back-to-back wins, the leaders heading into the event Kyle White and Sean Topping did not get their Ypres Rally off to a great start.
Photo: Kyle White & Sean Topping | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
Despite posting the fastest time on the opening stage, they then put their Peugeot 208 Rally4 off the road, falling foul of those infamous ditches which line the roads in Belgium.
This passed the baton onto Kyle McBride & Liam McIntyre in the Ford Fiesta Rally4, who lead Casey Jay Coleman by 38 seconds after the opening loop of stages.
Photo: Kyle McBride & Liam McIntyre | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
“We’ve just had a clean steady run, it’s a new experience to me out here, trying to manage the cuts”, “It’s a long weekend ahead, so we’ll have to keep it going” “Obviously my main concern is the BRC, but It’s nice to compare our pace to the Belgian boys”
Kyle McBride
Back out after the first service halt and Lefebvre was back at it getting the better of Fourmaux on the repeated runs through both Westouter and Kemmelberg, believing that he was a lot more confident on these second passes. Fourmaux again appeared to remain calm “I am really happy with my pace, it is all good, all is under control so that’s fine” he expressed after SS6 Kemmelberge 2. It would not be long before his patience would pay dividends, as in the very next test (SS7 MEEM-MIDDELHOEK 2), Lefebvre would have a monumental off in his Citroën C3 Rally2.
Photo: Stéphane Lefebvre | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
Lefebvre who appeared to be outpacing Fourmaux on this opening day had perhaps been pushing his luck a little bit too far; after building up a 4 seconds lead, it would all come crashing down on him in spectacular fashion. Adrien Fourmaux and Co-Driver Alexandre Coria would end the opening day of the rally with more than a 52-second advantage over their closest British Championship registered competitors, Davy Vanneste & Kris D’alleine.
Photo: Adrien Fourmaux & Alexandra Coria | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
“There is no real margin for error on this rally, every time it’s a big crash when we have a crash here. Really sad for Stephan, he’s a good friend, but he’s ok that’s the main thing. We have a rally to finish and we try to get the victory”
Adrien Fourmaux
James Williams & Dae Roberts would also benefit from Lefebvre’s exit, their steady progress had earnt them 6th overall which is pretty good going, to be in the mix with the locals.
Photo: James Williams & Dai Roberts | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
“Good day to be fair, the first loop was obviously like a test for us so just trying to build on the second one”, “Really happy with the progress, it’s been going in the right direction”
James Williams
There was another change in the lead of the Juniors following another offroad excursion; this time it was Kyle McBride who would fall foul of the ditches on the final stage of the day, SS8 Langemark 2.
McBride’s misdemeanour handed things over to Casey Jay Colman to take up the lead at the end of the opening days play.
Photo: Casey Jay Coleman & Lorcan Moore | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
“We had a difficult day ourselves, bedding ourselves in, new car, new nav and totally new conditions, we enjoyed it and we got the millage”
Casey Jay Coleman
The second leg of the rally was a mighty 147km across a further 10 stages, M-Sports Adrien Fourmaux & Alexandre Coria would begin the second day with a comfortable lead of over 52 minutes to uphold over his nearest British Championship contestants, Davy Vanneste & Kris D’alleine.
Photo: Adriean Fourmaux & Alexandra Coria | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
The morning group of four tests, Fourmaux as expected dominated the field and set his eyes firmly on the rally win “We are happy with our pace this morning, we were careful on the tricky places where there was a lot of dirt, then we were pushing when we knew exactly where we were, as the stages we did last year”, “The rally is still long, so we need to be careful, things can change quickly, it’s a comfortable gap in terms of pace but things can happen”, “The car will stay the same….. I will just put black round tyres on”
and speaking of those black round things, tyre choice seemed to be the talk about town after the morning loop.
“(The Tyres) I think it was a compromise, we took the medium tyres and we were losing them on some places, but then it was cooling down enough for the rest of the stage, sometimes when you have the long straight. Sometimes I would like the hard for the precision, and then when it was the dirt, I wanted the medium; I don’t even know now if the medium was better or the hard”
Adrien Fourmaux
While the second-placed British Rally Championship crew were “Absolutely happy” with their morning’s efforts, Vanneste provided some insight into his experience of the Michelins to compare to the Pirelli’s that Fourmaux was on.
Photo: Davy Vanneste & Kris D’alleine | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
We drive with the Michelin and the medium tyre, honestly the range is so wide for this tyre, immediately you have grip. It’s a little bit cold or a little bit less grip, this tyre does it all the time, I’m very happy with this tyre.”
Davy Vanneste
Behind the Europeans, it was a fraught morning loop for our British crews, James Williams and Dai Roberts’s rally really didn’t seem to be going their way.
Photo: James Williams & Dai Roberts | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
“I had a vibration from the gearbox or something, I tried to do a quick fix on the road section but that didn’t help it. And then I lost the power steering on a fast lefthander and we went into a ditch, luckily no damage, nothing I could have done, it just went heavy in the middle of the corner on the gravel. At least we came here (to service), we were lucky but it was gone for the rest of the stage and the gearbox is really clunky, we are just having lots of little issues, it’s a nightmare!”
James Williams
Clearly, lady luck was not on the side of Williams, having been keeping it in the top ten overall up until this point, their troubles had now dropped them back right down to 22nd overall.
Meanwhile, Garry Pearson and Dan Barritt were making steady progress but Pearson was keeping the sensible cap firmly on here in Ypres.
Photo: Garry Pearson & Dan Barritt | By Black Mountains Media
“We will just stick to our plan and our driving, ultimately it’s challenging enough for the pace we are going for our first time here”, “It will be easy to get sucked into battles here, but for us, we are just learning”
Garry Pearson
For the rally leader, Fourmaux, it was now just a case of managing the now-sizable lead that he and Co-Driver Coria had built up; the pair could also back off the pace a little in the repeated afternoon runs over the stages. Fourmaux did, however, hint at an electronics issue with the Ford Fiesta Rally 2’s ECU but also confirmed that all was fine after changing it at the end of a stage…. who would have thought to carry a spare ECU with them??
With just two final passes over the Reninge and Watou tests remaining, all that separated Fourmaux and that top step of the podium was another 26-odd kilometres. With a gap of 22 seconds to Chris Ingram in second overall but more importantly, over a minute and a half to Davy Vanneste in the British Championships, there really wasn’t anyone who was going to stop him here in Ypres.
The pair entered the final test of this long challenging rally without any pressure and would emerge victorious to take their third British Rally Championship victory, making it a full house of wins in the season thus far.
Photo: Adrien Fourmaux & Alexandra Coria | By Black Mountains Media
“It’s really really good for me, everybody knows it’s a really prestigious rally, Ypres, so we are really pleased to finish in the first position. It’s like revenge compared to last year so we can be really happy. The car has been perfect so I can only say thanks to the team”
Adrien Fourmaux
Crossing the finish line in second, over a minute and a half down on Fourmaux were Belgian Nationals, Davy Vanneste & Co-Driver Kris D’alleine in their VW Polo GTI R5. I’m not sure the reasoning behind Vanneste or Lefebvre registering for British Championship points here?
There were mutterings about the likes of Lefebvre only registering for British points in order to not interfere with the Belgian Championship and the chances of the Lefebve or Vanneste coming back out to play at another British round are likely to be slim to none.
Photo: Davy Vanneste & Kris D’alleine | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
What Vanneste’s second place has done, is just prevent those British crews who are competing in the full season from obtaining valuable points and being rewarded over those who did not make the trip over to Ypres.
It’s just a thought but I don’t think the BRC organisers should allow such one-off appearances, maybe a clause in the regulation which might stipulate a minimum number of events must be committed to in order to score Championship points? just some food for thought as it doesn’t seem right in my eyes.
Best of the rest was Scotsman Garry Pearson and Dan Barritt in their VW Polo GTI R5 car. Pearson would have come to Ypres under no illusions, with this being his first attempt at the rally it was always going to be a mammoth task and a big ask for that matter, to be fighting with the locals.
Even more so with the calibre of names on the entry, I mean, as if having Fourmaux in the Championship full-time isn’t enough already but to then compete at this event with the likes of Stéphane Lefebvre and the legend that is Freddie Loix, not to mention fellow Brit, Chris Ingrim, it’s pretty daunting, but then again, it is also nice to pitch ones self up against the Belgian crews on their home turf.
Photo: Garry Pearson & Dan Barritt | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
So when ones sits back and considers all that Ypres was for Pearson, a finish of 15th place overall, and third on the British Rally Championship podium is a fine result to be heading home with no?
The same, however, I don’t think could be said for poor old James Williams and Dai Roberts. The pair showed great pace at times, mixing it up with the locals inside the top 10. However, Ypres was a tough rally, which for them, was severely hampered with lots of niggles and issues which made a dent to their overall result. Nevertheless, Williams carried on regardless and at one point commented “It’s a nightmare… but that’s rallying sometimes” which summed up his Ypres to the tee.
Photo: James Williams & Dai Roberts | By Black Mountains Media
The Junior British Rally Championship contenders also experienced a tough Ypres. First up was JBRC series leaders, Kyle White and Sean Topping, who were out of contention on the opening night after paying a visit to one of the infamous ditches which line the roads. Kyle McBride then followed suit and before you knew it, Casey Jay Colman was on for his maiden Junior British Championship win, just so long as he could keep it on the road.
Photo: Casey Jay Coleman & Lorcan Moore | By Andrew Scott (BRC)
And keep it on the road the young man did, with the help of Co-Driver Lorcan Moore, the pair successfully completed the mighty challenging Ypres Rally in their Ford Fiesta Rally 4 car to secure maximum JBRC points.
“Really good, really happy to be here, what a difficult couple of days and months. This result is really nice to get after all the things going on, really nice to get it especially here of all places”
“It was always going to be a finishers rally, and we stuck to our plan and here we are. Of course, the pace is massive with the Belgian guys and it’s hard to bring it to them but look, we improved our pace all weekend and here we are now”.
Casey Jay Coleman
NEXT TIME …
The British Rally Championship remains on the tarmac for Round 4 but heads to Northern Ireland for the Modern Tyres Ulster Rally (18/19 August). We already know that this two-day closed-road rally is a super-fast one, and those crazy Irish folk are quick on their home events too. Keith Cronin will be back in action amongst others and we can’t wait to see how he fairs up against the formidable Fourmaux, who is running away with it as the series reaches the midpoint of the season.
