CAFÉ RACER 76

Valentino Rossi à l’assaut du Dakar

Nonuple champion du monde, Valentino Rossi va tenter l’expérience du célèbre rallye raid, le Dakar, au guidon d’une Yamaha-Michelin, dès 2015.

A 35 ans, Valentino Rossi se lance un nouveau défi en participant à l’édition 2015 du Dakar. « The doctor » affrontera les pistes exigeantes d’Argentine, de Bolivie et du Chili pour tenter de rallier l’arrivée le 17 janvier à Buenos Aires. L’Italien ne se fixe pas d’objectif précis même si franchir la ligne d’arrivée dans le Top 10 serait une énorme satisfaction.

Suite au départ de Cyril Despres chez Peugeot Sport, l’arrivée de Valentino Rossi est une bonne nouvelle pour Yamaha. Les premiers essais seraient programmés au mois de juillet lors de la traditionnelle trêve estivale en MotoGP.

A suivre …

A strong entry for the Algarve / Du (beau) monde en Algarve !

With the exception of Rally Finland, which frequently attracts some 100 starters, the 2014 Vodafone Rally de Portugal is the WRC’s most popular round for five years, with an entry of 85 crews. Sébastien Ogier and Volkswagen are the big favourites.

The entry list features 15 World Rally Cars, 17 WRC-2 runners and 14 crews in the WRC-3 and Junior categories, plus 13 Drive DMack Fiesta Trophy contestants and 14 Portuguese Championship contenders.

Volkswagen Motorsport is on a run of seven straight wins and its line-up includes three-time Portugal winner Sébastien Ogier, along with Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen who drove the Polo R WRC/Michelin for the first time here in 2013. The championship’s leaders Ogier and Latvala will be first on the road on Friday, but that shouldn’t be a big handicap because rain is forecast all week in the Algarve.

Despite their Mexican woes, Mads Ostberg and Kris Meeke have a good momentum going at the moment, and the Citroën DS3 WRC is likely to be competitive on Portugal’s technical stages. Meanwhile, Hyundai Motorsport is running three i20 WRCs for the first time (for Neuville, Hanninen and Sordo) and the rally promises to provide the first real indication of the car’s potential after the team’s top-three finish in Mexico.

In the M-Sport camp, Mikko Hirvonen has yet to win in Portugal after six attempts (he was disqualified after his 2012 victory), while Elfyn Evans was eighth in WRC-2 last year following a transmission problem. Even so, the Welshman was fastest on all the final leg’s stages. Robert Kubica also took part in the 2013 WRC-2 battle but used the Rally2 ruling twice en route to sixth place. Finally, Portugal will be Ott Tanak’s second appearance of the season in the Fiesta RS WRC.

This year’s WRC-2 entry stars Jari Ketomaa, Yuri Protasov, Pontus Tidemand, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Julien Maurin, Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and Martin Kangur, all in Ford Fiestas (R5, RRC or S2000), so there is every chance the category will be won by an M-Sport built car!

The 2014 Junior-WRC kicks off in Portugal, too, and the 14 Michelin-equipped Citroën DS3 R3s will be driven by the likes of Stéphane Lefebvre, Simone Tempestini, Christian Riedemann, Alastair Fisher, Jan Cerny and Molly Taylor who are the class’s most internationally known names.

The Drive DMack Fiesta Trophy has attracted a number of former J-WRC runners, such as José Suarez, Yeray Lemes, Sander Pärn and Marius Aasen. Others to watch include Quentin Gilbert, Ghislain de Mevius and Max Vatanen.

The host country’s top representatives are three-time Portuguese champions Ricardo Moura (Fabia S2000) and Adruzilo Lopes (Subaru), plus the 1995 P-WRC champion Rui Madeira (Fiesta R5).

The traditional format visits familiar stages (Silves, Ourique, Almodovar, Santana da Serra, etc.) after the official start on Thursday afternoon in Estoril, for the first time since 1994. Competitive action will begin with a super-special alongside the Tagus River in Lisbon.

Hormis le Rallye de Finlande qui réunit régulièrement une centaine d’équipages, le plateau du Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2014 est le plus fourni du WRC depuis cinq ans avec 85 engagés. Sébastien Ogier et Volkswagen sont plus que jamais favoris.

Parmi les 85 engagements, on dénombre 15 World Rally Cars, 17 prétendants en WRC-2, 14 en WRC-3 et championnat Junior, 13 en Drive DMack Fiesta Trophy et 14 pilotes engagés au Championnat du Portugal.

Après sept victoires consécutives, Volkswagen Motorsport sera de nouveau l’équipe à battre ce week-end avec le triple vainqueur du Portugal, Sébastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala et Andreas Mikkelsen qui avait débuté au volant de la Polo R WRC/Michelin ici-même l’an passé. Leaders du championnat, Ogier et Latvala ouvriront la piste vendredi, mais ce ne devrait pas être un lourd handicap puisqu’on annonce de la pluie toute la semaine sur l’Algarve.

Malgré leurs déconvenues au Mexique, Mads Ostberg et Kris Meeke sont sur une bonne dynamique et la Citroën DS3 WRC devrait encore être performante sur ces spéciales techniques. Pour Hyundai Motorsport, qui aligne pour la 1^ère fois trois i20 WRC – Neuville, Hanninen, Sordo -, ce sera un vrai indicateur sur le 1^er rallye représentatif de la saison. Là aussi, Hyundai Motorsport est sur une bonne dynamique après son 1^er podium mondial au Mexique.

Quid de M-Sport ? En six participations, Mikko Hirvonen n’a jamais réussi à s’imposer officiellement sur ce rallye (sa victoire en 2012 avait été annulée). Elfyn Evans avait terminé 8^edu classement WRC-2 l’an passé après un problème de transmission. Mais le Gallois avait signé tous les meilleurs temps de la catégorie le dernier jour. Robert Kubica évoluait lui aussi en WRC-2 en 2013 : il avait eu besoin de deux Rally2 pour venir à bout du parcours et prendre la 6^eplace. On attend confirmation de l’Estonien Ott Tanak pour sa 2^e course de la saison sur la Fiesta RS WRC.

En WRC-2, il y a là aussi du beau monde avec Jari Ketomaa, Yuri Protasov, Pontus Tidemand, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Julien Maurin, Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, Martin Kangur, tous sur des Ford Fiesta (R5, RRC et S2000). On ne voit pas comment la catégorie pourrait échapper à une voiture sortie des ateliers M-Sport !

Le championnat Junior-WRC 2014 débute au Portugal avec 14 Citroën DS3 R3/Michelin également engagées en catégorie WRC-3. Stéphane Lefebvre, Simone Tempestini, Christian Riedemann, Alastair Fisher, Jan Cerny ou encore Molly Taylor sont les plus connus sur la scène internationale.

En Drive DMack Fiesta Trophy, on retrouvera d’anciens pensionnaires du championnat Junior comme José Suarez, Yeray Lemes, Sander Pärn ou Marius Aasen. A suivre les prestations de Quentin Gilbert, Ghislain de Mevius et Max Vatanen. Enfin, parmi les pilotes portugais, on retrouvera les triples champions nationaux Ricardo Moura (Fabia S2000) et Adruzilo Lopes (Subaru) ou encore le Champion du monde PWRC 1995 Rui Madeira (Fiesta R5).

Le parcours est des plus classiques avec des spéciales connues (Silves, Ourique, Almodovar, Santana da Serra…). Le départ sera donné jeudi après-midi à Estoril pour la 1^ère fois depuis 1994. Les concurrents disputeront ensuite la Superspéciale de Lisbonne, sur les rives du Tage.

Clubbed to deaf: The best of the 72nd Goodwood Members' Meeting

With the Festival of Speed and Revival brim-full in recent years, 2014 saw Lord March add another event to the Goodwood calendar. The weekend’s 72nd Members' Meeting was held at the circuit, almost 48 years after the 71st…

Between 1948 and 1966, the Members’ Meetings were held every few months, with the era’s finest drivers descending on Sussex for the benefit of British Automobile Racing Club members. This year, the limited-entry affair drew more than 20,000 spectators to the resurrected event – which several attendees likened to a ‘distilled crowd’ Revival meeting, along with the added bonus of more liberal racing categories, including those for post-1966 machines. Of these, the Longtail Le Mans cars, Group B rally monsters and Turbo F1 cars garnered most attention, the latter group particularly relevant with their modern-day descendants simultaneously in action in Malaysia.

Red-blooded racing

While those categories were limited to sprints and demonstration outings, red-blooded racing was also on offer throughout the weekend. The Moss Trophy saw an epic battle, with the Ferrari 250 Breadvan taking a lengthy lead as expected, only to drop down the pack later in the race. This left the DK Engineering Jaguar E-type, Lotus Eleven Breadvan and Aston Martin DB4GT to fight for first, the Aston pipping the Lotus by a car length after a prolonged dogfight. The latter’s performance was particularly commendable, given its underdog status in the ‘Battle of the Breadvans’ as a result of a 50-year competition absence. Another fascinating tussle saw RM’s Max Girardo spin his increasingly pendulous Ferrari TdF on the final lap of the Tony Gaze Trophy, relinquishing first place to an AC Ace-Bristol that had, incidentally, also won at its last Members’ Meeting outing, back in the 1960s.

Sensory overload

Sights, smells and sounds of rare machinery were prevalent across the motor circuit – thunderous American muscle vibrating your core, while the screaming V12 of the 1972 Le Mans-winning Matra-Simca MS670B went to work on your eardrums. Incidentally, the Members’ Meeting took up two of the five days this year during which the Goodwood circuit’s decibel limit is waived, the other three being the Revival. Other multi-sensory spectacles included Jochen Mass expertly dancing a Gullwing around the ultra-technical circuit, and Sir Stirling doing parade laps in the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione in which he won five significant races in period.

Even safety a spectacle

Many Classic Driver affiliates were in action in some capacity or other, including JD Classics,William I’Anson, Desmond Smail and DK Engineering. The Cottingham family behind the latter not only raced a GT40 and an E-type, but also piloted the Ferrari F40 safety car duo that kept the demonstration-only classes from turning competitive. Indeed, the safety cars were an exhibition in themselves – only at Goodwood would an Aston DB5, a McLaren P1, a Jaguar XJS and a Bullitt Mustang be employed in such a role. As is traditional at Goodwood, there were plenty of forms of non-automotive entertainment – an aircraft hangar-turned-nightclub, a spectacular fireworks display and a Spitfire fly-by just a few examples. The question on the lips of the departing spectators on Sunday evening was a poignant one: how can Lord March possibly improve the 73rd Meeting? He’s managed during the last few decades with the Festival of Speed and the Revival, so it’s a question to which we're already looking forward to the answer.

Photos: Tim Brown

Bell & Ross B-Rocket: Lift-off, with a twist

Alfa Romeo's heavenly-looking 4C might have been voted 'most beautiful car of 2013' at January's International Automobile Festival in Paris - but it was watch brand Bell & Ross that caused the biggest stir of the event...

On home turf, the French watchmaker pulled the wraps off a wild-looking motorcycle which has just been 'officially' unveiled at the Baselworld watch show.

The B-Rocket is heavily based on the watch brand's associations with aviation

The retro-futuristic 'B-Rocket' is the work of British custom bike builder Shaw Harley-Davidson, which first collaborated with Bell & Ross three years ago when Shaw's chief sales executive, Steve Willis, proposed creating a unique machine as a promotional tool for the brand. The result was the 'Nascafe Racer', which came third in the 2011 American Motorcycle Dealer world custom championships and has subsequently served as an irresistible crowd puller at Bell & Ross events around the world.

The success of the Nascafe prompted B & R founder Bruno Belamich to commission Shaw to build the even more radical B-Rocket, which is heavily based on the watch brand's associations with aviation.

E.T. go prone

The idea of building the bike so it is ridden in a prone position came from a 1930s Brough Superior speed record machine seen at last year's Salon Privé in London, although the basis of the B-Rocket was a standard Harley-Davidson FXS Softail Blackline cruiser.

Shaw's in-house fabricator, Dave Rollison, crafted the steel, jet-like bodywork entirely by hand, while design and build genius Neil Sefton carefully pieced everything together to create the beautifully finished product.

Precision-engineered projectile

The tail piece is made from 30 separate sections of steel with Plexiglass lowers covering the chain, rear brake and solid wheel covers. Hand-made brass grilles help to cool the 10-inch brake discs, while the front end of the bike features a pair of small, adjustable 'wings' mounted on the girder forks to optimise airflow.

To coincide with the bike's unveiling, Bell & Ross has launched two 'B-Rocket' watches - the 46mm BR01 B-Rocket chronograph and the 42mm BR03 B-Rocket with large date and power reserve indication. Prices start at around 4,500 euros.

Photos: Bell & Ross