Upcoming Events
With 45 days to go before the start of the 91st WRC Monte-Carlo Rally, the volunteer & members of the « ACM Corps des Commissaires » met on Sunday for their traditional training day. For more than 40 years, the aim of the Circuit Routier d’Instructions Commissaires (C.R.I.C.) has been to check the application of the procedures and regulations put in place for rallies.
A necessary training to review the knowledge and skills of each participant.
More than 150 volunteers were involved between the « Chapiteau de Fontvieille » and the roads of the Monegasque hinterland where 3 fictitious special stages were programmed, in real rainy and winter conditions.
The Corps des Commissaires benefits this year from the contribution of a new generation of Commissaires with the presence of 18 new men and women, all passionate about Motor Sports and having worked on the “track” events last spring.
A real seminar between theory and practice
After a morning briefing at 9.00 am, the teams of volunteers were spread out along the route, which was prepared by the Automobile Club teams. The accent was put on the strict application of the regulations. The marshals were placed in real-life conditions with the presence of around twenty competitors.
On the practical side, the objective here is to study all types of scenarios in accordance with reality and which may occur during an event: late check-in, hazard lights, immobilisation of a competitor, red flag, etc.
At the end of the day, the general debriefing will take place, under the responsibility of the Deputy Chief Steward and the Event Director in order to draw conclusions from the training.
Our Commissaires will be back in January for the Monte-Carlo WRC Rally (19-22/01) and the Monte-Carlo Historic Rally (24/01-01/02).
Contrary to what was planned when the initial route was announced, last July, the Organizing Committee at Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) has had to cut the Classification Leg short of one Regularity Stage.
Following a decision by Conseil Departmental (District Council) of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence not to allow drivers to race on Regularity Stage N°3 between Le Castellard-Mélan and Sisteron through col de Fontbelle, during the winter season, for safety reasons, this stage has been cancelled on the program for Saturday January 28, 2023 and will not be replaced…
A few days only after the Official Rule Book was published for the 91th edition of Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo, and contrary to what was planned when the initial route was announced, last July, the Organizing Committee at Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) has reorganized the 3rd day of the event.
Following a decision by Conseil Departmental (District Council) of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence not to allow drivers to race on SS10/12 between Saint-Geniez and Thoard through col de Fontbelle, during the winter season, for safety reasons, the route for Saturday January 21, 2023, has been significantly amended.
So that Day 3 of the event is now made of a three-stage loop consisting in « Le Fugeret / Thorame-Haute » (SS9/12 – 16.80km – 8:24am/2:25pm), « Malijai / Puimichel » (SS10/13 – 17.31km – 10:05am/4:05pm) and « Ubraye / Entrevaux » (SS11/14 – 21.78km – 12:23am by day/6:23pm by night).
This loop will be run twice for a total length of 111.78km for six special stages, before and after a tyre changing zone and a compulsory regroup in Puget-Théniers, just like Friday.
The Organising Committee of the 91st Rally Monte-Carlo WRC has published the Supplementary Regulations for the event on Wednesday 16 November, at the same time as it officially opened the entry form.
The 2023 Season of the FIA World Rally Championship will start from the Principality of Monaco from Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd January and will be run on the roads of the hinterland with a challenging route between the Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence departments.
You can already find the Supplementary Regulations for the event in the Rallye Monte-Carlo 2023, Competitors’ Area > Official Documents, where all the entry and participation conditions are detailed.
Entries are open until Friday 16 December 2022. You can find the entry procedure in the following link “Entries 2023“.
After last Friday’s selection, it’s time today for the official publication and confirmation of the entries!
For this 25th edition of the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique, 284 crews will take part from five authentic concentration routes: Bad Homburg, Oslo, London, Turin and Reims. Five itineraries… for a common destination: Monte-Carlo.
And the rally route remains a series of famous special stages, all of them used every year by the World Championship event, the inaugural leg of WRC.
There will again be many competitors entered, all of them ready to fight on these legendary roads in order to win the trophy held by Belgian twins Philippe and Antoine Cornet de Ways Ruart, winners in 2022 in a 1965 Porsche 911.
Five major players of this 6th E-Rallye Monte-Carlo, tied for first place in RS13 between Lambruisse and Barrême (23.4 km), passing through the Col du Deffand. And the Bruno Saby-Pascal Serre crew, in the wake of their win in RS12, once again put their hydrogen-powered Hyundai Nexo at the forefront. Tied with Didier Malga and Anne-Valérie Bonnel (Porsche Taycan), winners in 2017, but also Jacques Pastor and Fulvio Gazzola (Kia EV6), still overall leaders, Philippe Segura and Xavier Baux (BMW IX), winners of two stages on Friday (SR9, SR10), and starred chef Michel Chabran, with Eric Mallen in a Renault Mégane sporting the colors of the eborn charging network.
Avis, one of the major car rental networks, is a partner of E-Rallye Monte-Carlo and uses it as a life-size test bench. This year, two experienced crews are entered in a couple of Hyundai Kona SUVs: one associates Marie Périn and Valérie Fontaine (aiming for the Ladies’ Cup) and another one is entrusted to Serge Garosi, a former French gravel rally champion, and Michel Périn, whose co-driving record would not fit in a directory. This shows that Avis take things seriously, knowing already that the electrification of its fleet of vehicles has to follow an exponential curve. A third entry, a Megane E Tech, is entered for a “house” crew made of Raphaël Sporshill and Wissem Ben Khelifa. A great mark of professionalism!
As in the heyday of his win in the 1988 edition of Rallye Monte-Carlo, in WRC, Bruno Saby appeared at the very top of a time sheet, on Saturday morning, and won RS12 between Le Fugeret and Thorame-Haute (17.9 km ). Perfectly navigated by Pascal Serre, in the right seat of their hydrogen-powered Hyundai Nexo, Saby perfectly respected the average imposed by the organizers. At the end of this famous Colle Saint-Michel, the crew of Team Espoir Cancer Braley Koni was tied with Antoine Dechamps and Michael Salvador, in their VW ID4. It was a very tight special, where eight crews finished in 3rd place, starting with Didier Malga and Anne-Valérie Bonnel (Porsche Taycan), winners in 2017 and still 5th overall, ahead of Saby-Serre in their Hyundai Nexo (6th).
The last Regularity Special (RS11) of the 3rd day, between Montauroux and Tanneron, was only 13 km long, in the Var. It ended in a perfect tie for first place, between the Peugeot e-208 of Audrey Melice and Yvan Bard, and the Renault Megane of Emilien Le Borgne and Romain Montembault. There was also a tie for 3rd place in this RS11, between another Peugeot e-208, that of Gilles Gard and Alain Gazal, and two VWs: the ID5 of Iwan Kneuts and Ken Divjak, another crew entered by Belgium VW Club, and the ID5 of Karel Colibert and Nathalie Zbinden, once again in the leading pack. On Friday evening, before the four specials of the 4th and last day, the situation is unchanged compared to Thursday evening: the Kia EV6 of Jacques Pastor and Fulvio Gazzola still leading, ahead of the best female crew of this 6th E-Monte-Carlo Rally, by far, made up of Karel Colibert and Nathalie Zbinden, the two Monegasques.
