And the 26' PDV 2005, again on the satellite channel AB Moteur
Sunday 4/09 08H30pm
Tuesday 6/09 08H00pm
Wednesday 7/09 01H30pm
Thursday 8/09 08H30am
Fridady 9/09 05H30pm
Saturday 10/09 06H00pm
Sunday 11/09 09H30pm
Monday 12/09 10H30pm
Tuesday 13/09 00H00
Wednseday 14/09 09H00pm
Friday 16/09 06H30pm

When Doug Eichner and John Mitchell started the last round of the 19th, they were certainly afraid about the weather conditions.

Indeed, the Banshee n°1 might have a real disadvantage on a greasy track in comparison to the 4 strokes engines, and the 2 laps lead might rapidly disappear. So he had to take the head very quickly but as for the 2 previous rounds, the n°97 avoid any rider to be the leader. And then big fear at the first curve, the Banshee hits the W-Tec n°16 of Ten Vregelaar/Van Delft/Baldwin. If the Dutch pilots are only delayed, the Banshee and its pilot flys over the wall. But hopefully only 10 places are lost.

Because of the deterioration of the track of Pont de Vaux, there are many long lasting stops, and even withdrawals of the top riders. Thus, the teams Winrow N°5, Couprie n°3, Estelle n°21, Rochereau N°8 or Demeester N°112 lose all the opportunity to be in the final ranking while we note that Lassaigne N°2, Ten Vregelaar n°16, Reid N°18, De Palma n°7 or Gilli n°17 give up.

The Polaris of the Bof’s brothers and Jimmy Févre, after a failure during the night takes back the 3rd place of the n°13 the Spanish riders Escudero/Ullastres who reach the 2nd place at the final ranking. And what would happened if the Banshee had a breakage.

But nothing happens and the ranking of the round doesn’t change a lot during the 4 hours of the race. The Honda TRX n°12 reaches the 6th place of this round and is ranked at the 3rd step of the podium at the final ranking.

Even if at the start, 114 quads out of 120 were equipped with a 4 stroke engine, it’s once again the invicible Banshee with a 2 strokes engine which wins on the meadow of Bresse. The American Doug Eichner is for the 7th times victorious in Pont de Vaux. A record that might not be beaten for long unless he comes back next year...

Photos : ALB impression

Particularly disappointed for their bad luck in the first round Lassaigne/Jay/Warnia were the strongest with their YFZ which failed during the 1st round.

Creamer takes the head but can’t arrive to keep a distance between him and the other riders who are pursuing him. Winrow, Kuhnl, Lassaigne and Mazarico, the local rider, are in the following order at the end of the 1st hour.

Unfortunately at the end of the ranking there are some of the best riders : De Palma, Brzozowski, Demeester or Ternynck are not lucky. The same for the team N°2 who stopped just at the beginning of the 4th hours. 2005 is definitely not the year for Lassaigne.

We had forgotten too quickly the Dutch rider Wil Van der Laan who comes back little by little from the 10th position at the end of the 1st hour, he reached the 2nd place with his VLS KTM at midnight, whereas Couprie comes from the 46th at the beginning of the round to the 6th at one hour before the chequered flag being lowered.

Five non stop hours it’s very long, above all with the tiredness at the middle of the night. The favourite pilots are the best and Eichner again wins this round before the Spanish riders n°13 and Winrow.

However, except a turnaround in the situation, it’s Doug Eichner with his teammate John Mitchell who seems to fly towards his 7th victory in Pont de Vaux. The 3rd round will determine the podium.

Photos : Christophe Garcia

The weather forecasst were not very good but it’s with a cloudy but sunny weather that the first round started at 3.00 pm after a silent minute in memory of the young Dutch rider Ronnie Smits.

It’s the Walsh Briel KTM n° 97 of the American riders Creamer/Lawson/Crant which is the first of the never ending file of the quads alongside the pits lane. But the following are very close and in the first right curve, the N°99 Brzozowki (Pl)Dowen/Wienen (USA) of the same team and and the n°6 Cain/ Lohr (USA) hit each other losing precious seconds. During the first laps, some top riders such as Winrow (Honda TRX N°5), Lassaigne (Yamaha YFZ n°2), Kuhnl (Bombardier DS n°11), Couprie (Yamaha YFZ N°3), Reid (Banshee n°18), Cain (YFZ n°6) are coming back.

However the first unexpected events occur. In the second lap, Greg Lassaigne goes back to the pits for a failure which it going to stop it during 3 hours. He will start for only 4 laps until the chequered flag is lowered. A few time later Reid’s Banshee gives up. Eichner (n°1) comes back very strongly among the first, like the CT Laeger’s YFZ N°17 of Gilli (I)/ Grandlund (USA)/Levi (I) or the Spanish Escudero/Ullastres/Ullastres (Honda TRX n°13).

At the end of the 1st hour, Creamer is before Couprie, Eichner and Gilli but further the refuelling the positions don’t stop changing. The Polaris of Chevrot/Adam/Connard n°9 and Bof/Bof:Fevre n°117 are close to the top 15 whereas the 1st women team Christelle Bourguigon/Adeline Martin/ Aurore Saulin YFZ N°55 are fighting. They will finish the round at the 32th place.

Even if the failures are not serious, mechanical troubles make the ranking evaluate and the chequered flag is lowered after Eichner always so fast. But there will be a great fight during the 5 hours of the night round. They are 4 in the same lap and we have to go to the 11th place to see the n°11 with only 2 laps late.

Photos : Christophe Garcia

With more than 20 countries, the 19 th event of the Mondial du Quad seems to be the most interesting.

Indeed, we can note that the 2 strokes engine Banshee Yamaha, invincible in Pont de Vaux for a long time, are this year less numerous, since there are only 6 on the starting line. At the end of the practices, the first are ranked at the 8th place n°18 Reid N.Irl)/Goodman (USA)/ Frederichs (USA) while the last year winners n°1 Eichner (USA)/Mitchell (GB) are only at the 13th place.

But above all the quads on the frontline are very diversified with 6 different engines at the top ten. The N°3 Couprie (F)/Brown (USA)/Dutrie(F) on a Yamaha YFZ, known as very fast riders, get the pole position before the French Gomes/Gaillard/Coquelle that we didn’t thought to be so well ranked on their 525 KTM Legpower. Another surprise with the 3rd position of the YFZ N°113 of the French riders Ternynck/Clemente.

It’s only at the 4th place on the starting grid that we find the favourites. The British pilots “PeeWee” Paul Winrow (GB), William Waggot and Jason MacBeth are at one second and half from the pole position on their Honda TRX 450 as the French Lassaigne /Jay/Warnia are at the 7th place on their YFZ.

However the ranking is only for getting a position on the starting grid of the 1st 3 hours lasting round which will start at 3.00pm. But obviously the riders will be faster than ever on the meadow of Bresse.

Photos : Christophe Garcia

53 riders are present at 9.30 on Sunday morning on the starting grid of the Quad Contest. We are expecting some surprises because in the mid night it rained a little making the track slippy which is better for the riding than for the power of the quad.

However the hierarchy of the practices is respected since from the start we find the best times of the categories 3 and out ranking that is to say the fastest quads. Please note that the Out ranking category includes the quads which are too modified regarding the stock ones. Except Elliot/Worthington who take the head very quickly, 6 machines have similar speeds and the distance between them are more and more important.Very quickly on the Suzuki LTZ (HC), Guyon /Gaudillat are fighting with VLS/Rotax (HC) and takes the 2nd place instead of Van Mastwy/Pages laps after laps. We can note that they are in the Out ranking category because of their victory 17 years ago. Fifth at the practices, Dufloux/Brossard (Kawa KFW/HC) will do only 10 laps whereas the “small” Honda 250 TRX of Peinet/Peinet stays for a long time in the top 10. It finished at the 11th place at the scratch and wins the category 1. Just behind them the 1st AXR SP, 12th of the race wins the category 2.

The scratch is won by Elliot/Worthington whereas Gaudillat/Guyon take advantage of a trouble after Van Mastwy/Pages refuelled and take them their 2nd place. Avellan/Valero rank at the 1st place of the categorie 3 at only one lap from the winners after two hours racing. As a consolation and even if they ride a stock quad, Gaudillat/Guyon win the VIP/Media/Industry challenge.

Photos : Christophe Garcia

This year, the Quad Contest created as a promotional race find again its original vocation.

Indeed, the technical check managed by Christian Sulpice, have revealed some wrong fitting on the quads which have to be very close to the stock ones. As a consequence, 12 machines have been changed of category and registered “out ranking” Let’s remind the classes
1st 250 cc 2 stroke
2nd 300 cc 4stroke
3rd 400 cc 4stroke
4th 250 cc 4 stroke

The scratch ranking gathers the whole categories, but we have to consider that all the categories will have their own ranking.

However it was the Suzuki LTZ N°30 (cat 3) of Hopin/Sourdeval (F) which was the fastest before the VLS Rotax (Cat Out ranking) of Elliott/Worthington (GB) and Van Mastwy (NL) Pages (E).Please note the 3’04” made by the LTZ are much more in relation with the Mondial. In 2004, there were only few seconds between the faster of the Contest whereas this year Couprie has realised a time less than 2’47.

No, this is not the Quad Contest. It's just Jesper Rosling during his FreeStyle Show !

Photos : Christophe Garcia