CLIO TROPHY
CHAUFFRAY WINS THE TOUQUET, FOTIA WINS THE TITLE
After coming within a cat’s whisker of winning the previous round of the Clio Trophy France eight months ago, Thomas Chauffray got his revenge on the Rallye Le Touquet – Pas-de-Calais. In a season that featured three different winners in as many rounds, Anthony Fotia has won both the overall and Junior titles as well as a factory Clio Rally4 programme for 2021 !
Among the 37 Clio Rally5s at the start of the resumption of the FFSA French Tarmac Rally Championship, 16 crews entered the season finale of the 2020 trophy, and eight of them were still in contention to win the Clio Trophy France crown.
63 Fotia Anthony, Sirugue Didier, Sarrazin Motorsport, Renault Clio RS line, action during the Rallye du Touquet 2021, 1st round of the Championnat de France des Rallyes 2021, from May 27 to 29 in Le Touquet, France – Photo Damien Saulnier / DPPI
Anthony Fotia and Thomas Chauffray, who were third and sixth respectively in the general classification, set the early pace. Anthony Fotia immediately jumped to the top of the order but Thomas Chauffray replied on the following two stages to return to the service park with a 4.9s advantage over Anthony Fotia. Romain Di Fante was third at 15.6s to the leader.
The afternoon loop then brought an end to the title hopes of Rémi Jouines, who went off the road on SS4 and then of Maxime Braesch, who also had an accident in SS6. Meanwhile, Thomas Chauffray posted two more fastest times versus one for Anthony Fotia to relegate his rival to 10.6s at the end of the first leg.
Anthony Fotia got off to a strong start Saturday morning with the quickest time through the Jean Ragnotti Power Stage to take five seconds out of Thomas Chauffray, who all the same came second to score four bonus points and win the Jean Ragnotti best performer classification for the most kilometres in the lead for the entire season ahead of his rival !
66 Chauffray Thomas, Hamard Anthony, Chauffray Thomas, Renault Clio RS line, action during the Rallye du Touquet 2021, 1st round of the Championnat de France des Rallyes 2021, from May 27 to 29 in Le Touquet, France – Photo Damien Saulnier / DPPI
Anthony Fotia : “It was a hard rally. We got off to a great start as I wanted to set a good time right away and then match our main rival in the Juniors, Romain Di Fante. We were able to push hard in the Power Stage after a good attack. The Sarrazin Motorsport team did an excellent job, and I would like to thank Alpine Racing for putting the Clio Rally5 in a feeder series. It’s a fantastic car, exceptional and able to shine overall. I’m now looking forward to getting to know Europe Location Rallye, the now defending champion, to learn Clio Rally4 with them. And I’m even more eager to be at the Rallye Vosges after seeing it battle for victory this weekend with Jean-Sébastien Vigion !”
Rallye Le Touquet – Pas-de-Calais
2020 Clio Trophy France
1. Thomas Chauffray – Anthony Hamard 1h27:08.7s
2. Anthony Fotia – Didier Sirugue (J) +27.9s
3. Romain Di Fante – Patrick Chiappe (J) +58.1s
4. Antoine Massé – Marc Haddad +1:19.0s
5. Romain Fostier – Ophelie Abchiche +1:38.9s
6. Guillaume Canivenq – Bastien Dumas +3:24.1s
7. Damien Mattei – Romain Garel (J) +3:55.8s
8. Benjamin Stirling – Florence Wehrey (J) +4:39.0s
9. Frederic Perrard – Francois Gilbert (G) +4:40.7s
10. Sebastien Rambaud – Aurelien Frejefond (J) +5:19.1s
11. Emilien Sanlaville – Amaury Sanlaville (J) +8:16.3s
Ab. Julien Baziret – Delphine Laval
Ab. Maxime Braesch – Loick Andre (J)
Ab. Remy Jouines – Valentin Auge
Ab. Margot Dupuy – Clio Chambelland (F)
Ab. Maxime Delhommeau – Melvin Fraigne
(J) : Juniors
(G) : Gentlemen
(F) : Females