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Photos : Alain Lebihan - ALB impression Cluny

On the start grid, like the 24 Hours du Mans, a silence coming from the depth of earth falls on the circuit just before the “wild pilots” being free. At the 1st places, are the names of famous teams : Yamaha Motor France (n°1), CT Racing (n°3), ATV World/Duncan Racing (N°2), W-Tec N°6)....

Greg Lassaigne keeps cool tempered and his Banshee is just before Reid, Eichner, Maessen and Allart. He finished his lap at the 1st position and came back to the pits for refuelling and started far behind .

With Joel Bontoux, sure a great “Monsieur” of the quad, they began a crazy comeback . Third at the end of the 1st hour, our two team mates became the leaders at about 2.30 pm.

In the meantime, those who hoped to be the winners, but delayed for troubles, played their joker : Etard/Bergeron/Meynier, Ten Vregelaar/Gomes, Bof Brothers/Fevre or Pion/Blondeau/Faucon remain at the top ten.

This last round has been lethal for several riders and at a few laps before the end, we could see some worrying smokes coming out from the Banshee n°1 itself.

However once again the quad n°1 will end at the 1st place showing their supremacy in the Mondial du Quad. At 3 laps, Eichner/Mitchell as well as Maessen/Waggot (10 laps), have shown that the Yamaha Banshee is still present despite its disappearance had been forecasted.

Congratulations French team n°1, leader of the 12 Hours

HEAVEN AND HELL
Mondial 2003 Round 2
(Night round)

Between the n°99 Bof Brothers, the 16 Chevrot/Simons, 11 Etard/Bergerond/Meynier, 63 Estelle/Barnie/Lieven, 15 Merle/Irons/Elliot or also 111 Peterhansel/Viardot/Alphand, the punishments is hard since all of them fall into the depth of the ranking.

It’s worth noting that the machines are suffering a lot because of the sunny and dusty weather conditions and also because of the hell rhythm of the leaders. However in those conditions, it seems that Lassaigne will be once again the winner indeed with his team mate Joel Bontoux they are remaining the kings of the night round.

The n°5 Gunther/Kuhnl/Allart, at the 1st place during several laps, couldn’t resist neither to their rhythm nor to Eichner/Mitchell and Maessen/Waggot.

A LOT OF CHANGES
Mondial 2003 Round 1

Grégory Lassaigne was the 1st to realize the holeshot before the Walsh Briel KTM n°24 (Walsh, Plante, Creech), n°101 (Frederics/Couprie/Gilli) and the n°14 (Winrow/Gobert/De Palma). Those who are used to the “12 Hours” know that they must go ahead in order to avoid the bottleneck at the level of the timing office. The n°1 Lassaigne, winner last year with Cyril Lamet, is going through without any troubles, follwed by Walsh (24), Frederics (101), Winrow (14), Reid (3), Ellis (116), Eichner (2), Kuhnl (5), Rowlands (4).

While only about 20 quads are going through, the 100 other ones are stopped and are waiting for the way get free. Then everybody is enveloped by a big cloud of dust because of the very hot and sunny weather. Quickly the places are changing and a lot of changes are occurring.

Some machines are coming back into the pits (n°98, 92...), even for a few of the best riders Pion/Blondeau/Faucon n°10, Walsh/Plante/Creech (24), Tusset/Goodman/Ffitch (117).

At 6.00pm, Lassaigne/Bontoux keep the 1st place before Eichner/Mitchell. But the night round which is starting at 8.00pm will be long, 5 hours which might be very hard.

THUNDER IN THE MEADOW
Mondial practices

Photos : Alain Lebihan - ALB impression Cluny

During 2 hours, the fight was very hard. The Team Joel Bontoux/Grégory Lassaigne (yamaha Banshee 2’48’’520) was at the pole position during a long time but “Peewee” Paul Winrow with Pascal De Palma on their Suzuki 400 LTZ n°14 (2’47””032) became the leaders.

This 17th event is getting more and more important as 17 nations are represented by more than 300 pilots among whom the best. As a proof, the American Canadian team Walsh, Plante, Creech,on a Walsh Briel n°24 are at the 3rd place before Red/Granlund/Stuart’ laeger’s Banshee (n°3) and Eichner/Mitchell (n°2).

On the 120 entered machines, of course the best fitted ones are at the top. But we will have to take into account those who have discovered the track, such as Stéphane Peterhansel and Luc Alphand who are riding with the very good Thierry Viardot, however at the 25th place.

With 7 differents brands at the 10 first places, the fight foreseen on the press release is really present. But we know that since a long time ago : in Pont de Vaux not only you must be fast but also be strong.

Indeed, because of the very hot sun which has been shining on the Bresse during all the Saturday and for all the riders of the Mondial who finished the night round at 1.00 am after 5 non stop hours, it was necessary to watered the track. However after such a long period without rain, the water couldn’t be drunk by the very dried ground. So it’s on a particularly greasy track that the start has been given.

The hierarchy of the practices isn’t modified since Demure’s raptor n° 37 became the leader followed by Maurice’s Banshee n°46 and Gariston’s Raptor n°34. They are a few number of pilots who ride under 3’10” and with those conditions, the gaps are getting deeper.

The 37 easily controlled the 46, and accelerated as soon as the gap was disminushing. It’s obvious that the podium is always played and Demure now can dream of the victory, that is to say his entry offered for the Mondial du Quad 2004 !

But the reality is different and 20 minutes before the end of the race, the engine of the Raptor n° 37 suddenly stopped. Maurice took advantage of the situation and has never been worried by Gariston who finished at more than 2 minutes. The 3rd place is for Lemaire with his amazing Kawasaki KFX before some machines theoretically supposed to be faster.

The Challenge VIP/Presse/Industry is for Lanen/Guérand for Kawaski Motor France. They specially wanted to thank the organisation team for a race organized in partnership with Quad Passion Magazine and that is becoming more and more interesting year by year.

JUST BEHIND THE TOP
OF THE PILOTS
Contest practices

Today Saturday 23rd of August the practices of the Quad Contest have given the start to the 17th Mondial du Quads.

This mean of promotion shows the interest of the pilots as from 9.00 to 9.30 there was a great fight for an unforgettable timer between 57 machines.Thierry Demure was the fastest on his Yamaha Raptor with a time 2’59”805, more than 1 second before Jean Luc Gariston also on a raptor, following are the Banshee of Christian Maurice and Rémy Soupiron.

The 57 machines entered are due to the introduction of the VIP /Press/Industry Challenge ( Torregrosa, Quad Organisation, Kawasaki, Starter 84, Moto and Co) in the Quad Contest. With a very high level of preparation and a large number of brands, the Sunday race might be very interesting.