Photos : Stephane Galliez / Sportimage.fr

MONDIAL, IT'S DONE !

The 22nd edition of the Mondial du Quad which took place from August 22 to 24 2008 in Pont de Vaux (France, Ain) saw the exceptional victory of the young French Romain Couprie and Clément Jay on their Yamaha 450 YFZ Drag'On/Moto and Co at the end of a very intensive race and a particularly strong fight.

As the best riders of the World present in the meadow of the Bresse, we can definitely say that the Mondial du Quad is the nicest race of the World. 16 countries, factories such as Yamaha, KTM,Polaris, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Can Am were in Pont de Vaux either directly or represented by dealers, a proof of the worldwide dimension of this event.

Year after year the public is coming to enjoy the show. From Friday the trades in Pont de Vaux have welcomed the crowd who could visit the great QuadExpo Village and enjoy the facilities and exhibitions, boutiques, quad and BMX freestyle show, the week end has flyed away so quickly.

With very good weather conditions, the race was very strong and with a Grand Prix rythm. With a three hours round on Saturday afternoon, a night round 5 hours long and the last of Sunday 4 hours, machines and pilots have suffered a lot. Even if the team Couprie/Jay could take advantage of a slight advande after a short repairing on the KTM of Farr/KIser/McGill, it couldn't relax because of the American pressure. Managed by Joel Bontoux, 5 times winner in PDV, they put away the bad luck which avoid them to be the winners last year.

The riders have enjoyed a lot the good riding conditions of the track this year despite some degradations very tiring after 12 hours racing. At the second place is the very fast American three riders Tim Farr/Taylor Kiser:Adam McGill on their 525 KTM XC,great professionals supported by the Austrian factory. The podium is completed by Julien Valentin, Jean Baptiste Richard and Vincent Raimondi very steady all over the week end with their Suzuki LTR.

Photos : Stephane Galliez / Sportimage.fr

MONDIAL ROUND 3
Sunday 24 - 01:00pm / 05:00pm

Youth takes the power !
We were granted with a crazy start for this 3rd and last session of 2008 with a French final victory, the two young French Romain Couprie and Clément Jay on a Yamaha YFZ n°4 Drag'on Moto and Co.

The n°4 of Romain Couprie was the first to get out the grid followed by the n°110 and n°1 and Gregory Lassaigne how big is his voluntee to win. As we can expect the n°110 immediately goes back to the pits in order to stop an oil problem, noticed at the end of the night session. At the 2nd lap in front of the timing, Lassage took the head and little by little the difference between him and his followers is increasing. Despite the bad luck they know yesterday several men want to perform in front of the public came in number and who came for the nicest quad race in the World. They have nothing to lose and their only purpose is to go the faster as they can to finish at 5.00 pm after 4 hours racing.

It's the case for the n° 10 Maessen/Beda:Murphy who took the head after several laps, the n°8 Meertens/Ternynck/Mitchell,.the AngloBelgian team Holmes/Vlaeymans/Brems n° 17 or of the n°106 Reid/Ullastres who want that the only Banshee entered be noticed. During this time, Taylor Kiser on the n°110 is coming back from hell : would the breakdown have been repaired ? However with 3 laps behind the n°4 (5th)) , the victory wasn't sure. After one hour racing, they are still 11 in the same lap whereas the refuellings don't stop. Race strategies are made not only to preserve the mechanics but also to manage the other adversaries. At 2.30 pm the n°2 Bonnard/Morin/Ciclet reached the 2nd position at 8 seconds after the n°10 and the n°4 seems to strengthen his leadership at the final ranking, while the n°1 gives up. The n°110 is coming back and reduce the gaps between him and the leaders.

Helped by the mechanics of the Austrian factory, by KTM France and KTM USA this very nice American team is coming from far. After the change of the oil cooler and the rear brake, he restarted faster than never. Seeing the danger, Couprie/Jay take the lead of the operations whereas the Americans make a stonger attack. The KTM seems to fly, the Yamaha put the afterburner and we don't see anymore what happens behind. The n°1 is stopped on the track, the n°115 Valentin/Richard/Raimondi N°33 Vinchon/Druet/Afflard and n°90 Cherubin/Montalbini/Kyle are in the top ten, whereas the Handi Challenge N°54 reaches a nice place in the middle of the ranking and the bio quad n°22 which is alimented with ethanol is doing better than defending himself.

The end of the race is impressive even if the final positions are clearer. We note the superb seesion of the n°2, n°5, n°116 Lamet/Remacle/Cornet,n°33 Vinchon/Druet/Afflard,n°7 Marin/Hartout/Picca or the Spanish team Trivimon n°6 Planella/Farres/Diaz. At the end of the Sunday afternoon round, Couprie/Jay are passing the squared flag. After 3 rounds, Clement Jay and Romain Couprie are the heroes of this edition, followed by 2 laps by the American Tim Farr/Taylor Kiser/Adam McGill and the Suzuki LTR n°115 of Julien Valentin/Jean Baptiste Richard/Vincent Raimondi. Sure it seems that youth are going to take the power in Pont de Vaux.

Photos : Stephane Galliez / Sportimage.fr

MONDIAL ROUND 2
Saturday 23 - 08:00pm / Sunday 24 - 01:00am

Tim Farr wants to hand the place .
The weather more than clement, a track which does not degrade too fast, a definitively operational timing: all the ingredients were combined to live a magic night as often in endurance .

It is at 8:00 pm when hundred twelve teams still in the run dashed for a night-round which ended at one o'clock in the morning. Ten years ago exactly, the American Tim Farr had gained the 12 hours of Pont de vaux together with Harold Goodman and Shane Hitt on a Honda quad, just before the real reign which was going to impose Yamaha Banshee. He came back this year with two others of his young people on a KTM which manifestly does not miss breath.

It is Taylor Kiser who was at first and lives nobody to realize the holeshot, place that the team Nb 110 keeps throughout the night. Behind it was the big jostling not to fall behind too much. It is at first N 10 and N 1 that are going to try to stay in the wheels of the KTM while of very severe pretenders in the victory were to be count like Couprie / Jay N 4, Reid / Ullastres N 106, Maessen/Beda/Murphy N 10, Lamet/Remacle/Cornet N 116 or Piron/Piron/Lassaigne N 1.But the American team is very strong and to see them passing in the big curves is really impressive. After two hours of race, the trio of head consisted N 110 followed by N 4 at one lap in front of N 1 at two laps of N110. We noticed the very beautiful race of TRX Honda N 5 of the Italian team Cozzi Extremetech piloted by the French riders Clemente / Bertrand / Sousa-Borges.

And where as Polaris Outlaw enchanted the public in their demonstration of freestyle at Quadexpo, those engaged in the Mondial had problems: N 67 of Broyer/Revoy/Chevrot dived into the depthes of the classification, N 112 of Eichner/Creech/Spader had to change engine further to a tightening While N 28 of Allart/De Palma/Adam possessed already four laps behind the leaders at 10:00 pm, but went back up inexorably to the classification as the night advanced. The ballet of the fuel fillings made the classification fluctuate, and we were then able to realize that several teams were in danger As Dorey/Cazalas/Borne (Kawasaki N 15), Valentin/Richard/Raimondi (Yamaha N 115), Sonik/Dietrich/Noss (Suzuki N 56) or Merle/Blondeau/Janin (Suzuki N 25).

At the end of five hours of race rich in intensity, we attended a group in head with thirteen teams in four laps. N 110 and N 4 are side by side where as N 1 is held in ambush, especially since a disturbing smoke emanated from the engine of American Polaris. The ultimate round of Sunday risks to hold us in breath and the final victory will be decided in the last minutes. Anything can happen at Pont de vaux.

A mistake was made on Saturday in the results of the night session. We can now find the good results.

Photos : Stephane Galliez / Sportimage.fr

MONDIAL ROUND 1
Saturday 23 - 03:00pm / 06:00pm

However the start was good !
The start at 3:00 pm of this 1st of the 3 rounds of the Mondial du Quad was the hardest fight we've never seen for a long time ago.

Indeed Romain Couprie n°4 went out first of the start grid followed very closely by the American KTM n°110, the Yamaha YZF n°10 of Maessen/Beda/Murphy and the Polaris n°67 of Broyer/Revoy/Chevrot. During several laps these four are going to test each other in order to take the lead : a real Grand Prix start whereas nearly 12 hours racing were remaining.

With the comeback of the sun the track kept soft but hard but a technical trouble obliged the organisation to stop the race. Behind the pace car, the riders gathered in order to allow the timing office to make a manual counting. Indeed each quad is equipped with a transmitter which sends a signal at each lap at the timing line. Unfortunately the reception was bad and the real ranking was changed. A lap behind the pace car shew that the signals were well received at a low speed so the organisation decided to change the timing area in order to slowdown the riders. However the manual counting was very hard and only the number of laps that we are sure were taken into account.

We are crossing our fingers and hope that the night round won't be penalised too by a technical trouble. This round even if is shortened will be officially taken into account for the final ranking. The final ranking shortened to 1h30 riding shows that the n°4 of Couprie /Jay are ahead the n°110 and the Irish Michael and Sean McAneney on the Yamaha n°98.

Photos : Stephane Galliez / Sportimage.fr

MONDIAL PRACTICES
Saturday 23 - 10:00am / 12:00am

Everybody is there !
After long waiting months and a minutious preparation of the quads the top riders are meeting on the meadow of Bresse.

The weather was not so good these last days and we were expecting the worse and effectively on a very slippy track the riders haves started on Saturdy 23 August at 10.00 for two hours of timed practices. Of course the first minutes were for testing and very soonly we see the first intentions such Tim Farr on his official KTM. So the favourite pilots are testing the track and check that everything is in order with their machine and know that in Pont de Vaux the track is drying very quickly, from muddy it turns hard. Change of speeds are not necessary and tyres will be changed by tyres for stable ground. As it was planned the track is more practicable and the fights are hard to reach the pole position.

We know Pont de Vaux for its surprises. However the timed practices and the best times is for the Amrican Tim Farr/Taylor Kiser/Adam McGill on their KTM n°110 with 2'53''619. They are 2 second ahead Clément Jay /Romain Couprie who want to forget their last year bad luck with the official Yamaha n°4. We find the at the 3rd place the Dutchman Joe Maessen always very fast in Pont de Vaux with this year the British Leon Beda and Stefan Murphy on their YZF n°10. Vincent Broyer shows also his intentions with the 4th time, with a Polaris n°67 , he is riding with Michael revoy and Thierry Chevrot.

Just behing them are Grégory lassaigne/Stéphane Piron/Alexandre Piron n°1 who are waiting and we can say now that for 2008 there will be suspens until the end. All the more that many pilots will fight for the victory : Doug Eichner, Justin Reid, Guy Meertens, John Mitchell or Josh Frederick are among them. Whoever they are American, English, Spanish, Irish, Belgians, Polish, Swedish, German, South African or of course French riders all are there for their pleasure and ours.

Photos : Bill "WBGO" Lanphier - Michel Maingret

FREESTYLE
Saturday 23 - 04:00pm-10:00pm
Sunday 24 - 05:30pm

Pure show !
During all the week end the HBomb team has inflamed the track with exceptional freestyle shows.

The quad backflip in live, that's one of the performance the visitors of Pont de Vaux won't forget ! Caleb Moore and his group of crazy friends have made the most technical freestyle figures after figures on their Polaris.

Based in the USA but set up with riders coming from all the planet, the team was set up by Caleb Moore (USA) certainly the best quad freestyler of the World, with Rafa "Hulk" Muñoz Alonso (Spain) who absolutely merits his nickname, Ales Rozman (Slovenia) and Dan Serblin (Italy).

With 4 riders the shows were very intense and never gave the public any respite. The crowd came numerous to see this show unique in Europa. All the freestyle figures have been made 1, 2, 3 and 4 riders even the Superman no hand and with the icing on the cake the backflip one hand over the team gathered on the top of the hillock !

For everybody on the track where some of the top quad riders were attending, that will be unforgettable moments with a very friendly team who has inflamed the prize giving ceremony with a champagne attack of course...

Photos : Stephane Galliez / Sportimage.fr

PDV QUAD CONTEST RACE
Sunday 24 - 09:00am / 11:00am

At 9.00 am, under the sunshine, the day has began with the Quad Contest racers the first to start this series of races.

Among the riders are some big names such as Julien Gramusset, in charge of marketing at Reaction. He has never missed the Quad Contest and of course has the bib n°1.

In the Holeshot racing team, Axel Dutrie and his n°21 took part to the Mondial du Quad as a young pilot. After training at Audemar with Joël Bontoux, today he is importing products for quads and supports Romain Couprie who hopes to win the top riders trophy this year in Pont de Vaux. Arnaud Augoyard is a car rallye racer, his passion is motorsports (his n°46 is in reference to Valentino Rossi) and he is actively helping Mira Canette, a caritative association. At last Riccardo Ventura and his n°60 is the initiator of the France Italy challenge and also manager of Quaddy, 6th saler of quads in France for 2007.

As it was planned, the ranking has quickly changed regarding the practices made on the very muddy track of yesterday. The n°59 Martin/Guiou who only realised the 11th time took the head from the start whereas the n° 7 Boucher/Petit follows him very quickly and realised good laps. Behind the riders found new racks. In this promotional race where you can test yourself, the preparation is very important and those who have found the good gearing down could make the best with their machine.

It's certainly the case for Dutrie/Duvion who were 17th at the end of the practices and who at only one hour racing are fighting for the title with the n°7. The n°9 is losing his 3rd in favour of Mionnet/Gaillard n°42. The pilots in the teams often are not the same level. That's why the ranking are modified after the changes of riders. It's the case of the n°7, n°21, n° 4 Prioli/Lerissel But Valentin Mionnet et Kenny Gaillard have been the most steady with their LTR n°42 and win after 2 hours racing, a victory with nearly 2 minutes ahead the n°49 and the n°60 is on the 3rd place of the podium.

Photos : Stephane Galliez / Sportimage.fr

PDV QUAD CONTEST PRACTICES
Saturday 23 - 9:00am / 9:30am

The Quad Contest is opening Pont de Vaux 2008
The riders of the Quad Contest have started with practices at 9.00 pm on a particularly hard track.

On Friday 22 August, the weather turned bad in the afternoon and the very muddy track made the riding very tricky. On a track with only one way it was very hard to pass, the riders had to ride very carefully in order to not lose in the curve. During a long time the Italian Riccardo and Amerigo Ventura were leaders with 3'36''14' , realised at their first lap with their Raptor n°60. But in the 7th and last lap, the Belgian Fabian Leroi and Olivier Potier from Luxembourg are at the pole position with thei Suzuki LTR with 3'31 ''289. Valentin Mionnet and Kenny gaillard are at the 3rd on the start grid just a few seconds before the Italiens. But the track, 3750 m long with its long straight line 555 m long, is very surprising since the practices and the fist two sessions of the Mondial which will take place this afternoon and tonight.But tonight it will get dried. Moreover the organiser have planned several refections worksworks of the track between the rounds, that would avoid the track to be destroyed. The weather for tomorrow morning, for the race which will be from 9.00am to 11.00am will change a lot and maybe the ranking of tocay will be changed. Indeed if there are great differences between the firsts and the last in this promotional formula, we can expect great moments of suspens at Pont de vaux.

Photos : Stephane Galliez / Sportimage.fr

DEFI MOTO ROUND 2
Sunday 24 - 11:30am / 12:00am

The start of the 2nd and last race of the Défi Motos was delayed, a 1/4 of hour.

David Sousa wanted to make forgotten the bad luck of yesterday after a fall with his Honda n°17. He only finished at 5 seconds behind the Yamaha n°3 Pierrick Paget. At the start type Le Mans, he is the fastest to cross the track and jump on his bike. He is followed by N°2 Vincent andré and n°3 but from the second lap wins time. The two men are going to fight hard during half an hour, advantage for n°17 and the n°2 stays back.

The fight for the 4th place is played between the n°28 Alexis Achaintré and n° 32 Maxime Marguerite in favour of the 1st mentionned. After half an hour, the positions are not changing anymore, and every rider seems to keep his position awaiting for a mistake of his adversary. But nothing moves, and david Sousa passes the squared flag winner with 15 seconds before Pierrick Paget, taking the advantage for the final ranking. Vincent André is at the 3rd place of the final ranking.

Photos : Stephane Galliez / Sportimage.fr

DEFI MOTO ROUND 1
Saturday 23 - 06:45pm / 07:15pm

Paget the master.
There was no doubt with the results of the practice : the victory will be played between David Sousa and Pierrick Paget with eventually Vincent André or Maxime Marguerite.

With a very fast start the Yamaha n°3 riden by Pierryck paget was far ahead the Honda n°1 of David Sousa. The 2 riders took the lead. After 20 minutes riding, only three riders were in the same lap n°3 Vincent André. Whereas the n°17 was making strong effort to reach the n°3, this one was sure to be better than his adversary and despite the small gap the victory was sure. Obviously the rythm was too high for the other ones since Alexis Achaintre n°28 finished far. To be noticed the local Nuage Bleu, Didier Janaudy was obliged to abandon after only two laps.

Photos : Stephane Galliez / Sportimage.fr

DEFI MOTO PRACTICES
Saturday 23 - 02:00pm / 02:15pm

The Mondial du Quad is welcoming for the 2nd year the Défi Motos which in fact is a test before the organisation of a big endurance race on the nice track of Pont de Vaux.

The 31 riders are riding on a part of the track between the straight line of the pits and the QuadExpo, that offers a very technical part as well as a long straight line. Three riders are leading : David Sousa n°17 (1'36''463), Pierrick Paget n°3 (1'37''695) and Vincent André (1'39''368). Chance are strong enough to find these 4 men at the head of the race which will take place in two rounds 30 minutes long, on Saturday from 6.15 PM to 7.15 pm and on Sunday from 11.15 am to 11.45 am.