It was 22h30 when the first cars of this fascinating 47th Geko Ypres Rally came over the podium on the Marketplace of Ypres for one last time. En for the seventh time in de history of the race, the first car coming through was that of Freddy Loix.
Last year Freddy fought a serious battle with Kris Meeke until the latter made a mistake on the Saturday afternoon. From then on, he only had to fend off Jan Kopecky of Czech Republic who kept the pressure on Freddy until the end. The Belgian won his sixth crown in the City of Cats after an exhausting weekend.
This year, things were easier and then again, they were not. Easier as Jan Kopecký (Škoda Fabia S2000) forfeited and from the early beginnings, we lost the Peugeot 207 S2000 of Thierry Neuville (SS1) while the other "lion", Brian Bouffier, made few mistakes in SS2 and SS3. Freddy hence could open up a gap with his competitors. Guy Wilks (Peugeot 207 S2000) tried to still hang on but the Loix train was just going too fast. On Saturday afternoon, two punctures sealed his fate. But this victory was also a difficult one as the Škoda BFO-driver now had to focus on his own race and on not making mistakes. This is often very tricky, but Freddy is an experienced professional and he finished in style taking his 7th win hereby reinforcing his record.
Freddy Loix was actually also one of the few who managed to sail around the many traps of this rally. The last few stages saw us lose Bernd Casier and his Škoda Fabia S2000 due to a broken power steering. Ashame as the local driver managed to stay ahead of Hans Weijs and was positioned in third spot until then. Patrick Snijers (MINI Countryman S2000) did not manage to profit as he left the road while being in 4th position. He lost more than one minute in the Heuvelland stage (SS16). Kevin Abbring also lost about 15 spots with his Citroën DS3 R3T as he made a small mistake in SS14 by taking his car for a bit of off-roading. Cédric Cherain put down a very strong performance with his Renault Megane RS as he managed to stay ahead of reference Kris Princen until he suddenly lost power on the Watou stage. He solved the problem but in Heuvelland things went wrong again. Cherain suffered a puncture and missed a braking zone, parking his car along the road. A bit further down the ranking we notice the excellent performance of Ghislain de Mévius and his Peugeot 207 R3T. Unfortunately, he also did not reach the finish as he went off on SS16. he was second in Class 5, a class ultimately won by Tommy Doyle of Ireland (Renault Clio R3). An eventful end to the race hence.
In the other classes, we saw the win of Jonas Langenaekens in class 3. He took a great victory over Anthony Martin and Kris Princen. Kevin Demaerschalk impressed the fans also as he won the battle of the Citroen C2 R2 Max and received the BFO Award. Xavier Baugnet came second in this category ahead of Nicolas Damsin. The winner in the Ford Fiesta Sport Trophy was Vincent Verschueren ahead of Bob Kellen and Frédéric Perrard. They were all beaten by the untouchable Claudie Tanghe however who participated with the same car but outside the Trophy.
Freddy Loix is now the new leader in the IRC ranking ahead of Bryan Bouffier who gained useful points for the championship. In the ERC, we see one Luca replacing the other. Luca Betti retired and this opened the road for Rossetti to go for the maximum of the points.
The next IRC event will be the Sata Rallye Açores Rally on 14, 15 and 16 July.
Final classification
1. Loix-Miclotte (Škoda Fabia S2000), 2:40'03''9 ;
2. Bouffier-Panseri (Peugeot 207 S2000), + 1'41''6 ;
3. Weijs-Degandt (Škoda Fabia S2000), + 3'56'9 ;
4. So?owow-Baran (Ford Fiesta S2000), + 6'06''8 ;
5. Snijers-Gitsels (Mini Countryman S2000), + 6'20''0 ;
6. Wilks-Pugh (Peugeot 207 S2000), + 6'33''8 ;
7. Kruuda-Järvegia (Škoda Fabia S2000), + 6'40''6 ;
8. Gardemeister-Suominen (Škoda Fabia S2000), + 6'57''4 ;
9. Rossetti-Chiarcossi (Abarth Punto S2000), + 7'25''0 ;
10. Ten Brinke-Thierie (Škoda Fabia S2000), + 7'37''3 ;
...
Leadership
SS1 to 18 : Freddy Loix
Scratches
Loix : 9 scratches ; Mikkelsen : 4 scr. ; Wilks : 3 scr ; Bouffier : 2 scr.
Ypres Historic Rally
De Historic Rally werd opnieuw gewonnen door Robert Droogmans (Ford Escort RS) voor Frédéric Chambon (Porsche 911). Een zesde succes « historic » voor « Droog-super-mans » die ook nog eens 5 « moderne » overwinningen in Ieper achter zijn naam heeft staan. Wie doet beter? Marc Duez werd 4de (Ford Escort RS)
