Ypres Rally 2019

[massiveCoRbyn]

Bit delayed, but a mate and I went over to Belgium last week for the Ypres Rally. This is probably one of the biggest rallies in Europe and was for a long time part of the European Rally Championship. However, it now makes up part of the Belgian championship, the British Rally Championship and the Benelux Rally Cup and the FIA R-GT Cup.

We headed over on Thursday, ready in plenty of time for shakedown, which tookk place that evening. The rally itself got underway on Friday afternoon (none of this early start nonsense that we do here!) so this left us plenty of time to take in a few of the significant WW1 sites in the area. I won't post much about that here, as it probably deserves a topic to itself but, needless to say, the cemeteries are pretty sobering places and put life into perspective a bit.

Back to the rallying, shakedown is a pretty big part of the weekend, taking place around Nieuwkerke, which is to the south of Ypres. This is one thing about this event - it's all very compact and easy to get to. Anyone who has been to Rally GB will tell you that moving between stages can take time and limited official spectator points can make access a challenge. Things are very different here. You will rarely spend more than 15-20 minutes in the car between any stage and access is easy. While there are designated spectator areas, you can easily park by the roadside and walk to numerous spots. Shakedown was a great example of this. The 5km-odd stage had spectator tape along the whole route, a sensible distance from the road, meaning you could watch from basically anywhere. Even for this, the last part of the stage finished in Nieuwkerke itself, with a stage playing live music and a fantastic atmosphere.

A few snaps from in and around shakedown:

MVIMG_20190627_195538 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

This was lovely. There were a couple of them. BMW 1M body, normally aspirated six pot and a sequential box. What a noise.

IMG_20190627_200102 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190627_214733 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Cool Punto Abarth recce car:

IMG_20190627_211513 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

MVIMG_20190627_212342 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

New Fiesta R2 engine:

IMG_20190627_212904 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190627_194409 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Nice LY 197 parked on the side of the road:

IMG_20190627_224014 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

To be continued.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

On to some shakedown video. Thierry Neuville was running in the Rally Masters category in a current Hyundai WRC car, which made for a bit more of a spectacle (as if it was needed):







Then some others:





To be continued again...

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Clio R3T:



Bit of a last minute hit of the button to try and catch a 'whoopsy' from one of the 1M guys. His co-driver was filming the whole thing on his phone lol:









To be continued even more....

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Few more from shakedown:









More to follow from the actually (it might take some time as I have loads to go through)

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Moving away from shakedown, I thought it was worth sharing a few pictures of Ypres itself. The service park is based right in the centre of town and basically takes over. Skoda back the event and have a huge presence there, along with Renties, who are a car hire company, and sponsor this (more on these later):

IMG_20190628_141424 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Multiple winner and former WRC driver, Freddy Loix decided to come out of retirement to have another go at the rally:

MVIMG_20190628_142136 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

MVIMG_20190628_142332 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Former Citroen WRC driver Craig Breen, who has won every rally he's entered this year was there in a Polo R5, run by the same team that was running Kris Princen, who is a Belgian championship regular. Craig didn't break his run, and went on to win the rally:

IMG_20190628_142543 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Neuville's Hyundai World Rally Car:

MVIMG_20190628_142723 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Random picture of some 2" thick steaks being cooked by the Hyundai chef!

MVIMG_20190628_142702 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

So weird seeing a service area with historic building in the background:

MVIMG_20190628_143421 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

More to follow...

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

The Cloth Hall in the background of this shot was flattened during WW1 and subsequently rebuilt and turned into a museum:

IMG_20190628_143425 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

New Fiesta R2T:

MVIMG_20190628_144150 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Old Fiesta R2T:

IMG_20190628_144206 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Current British Rally Champion, Matt Edwards' Fiesta R5:

IMG_20190628_144427 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Another BRC runner, Alex Laffey:

MVIMG_20190628_144439 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190628_144502 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Citroen C2 S1600 engine:

IMG_20190628_144720 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Brian Bouffier was also running in the Rally Masters category, but in a Fiesta WRC:

IMG_20190628_150512 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190628_150553 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

More to follow

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Friday evening saw us attend two stages. The first was in Mesen, but these videos are from Kemmelberg, which is quite a famous part of the rally. Straight into the videos...

Another former WRC driver, Bruno Thiry, in an Opel Corsa A on the Masters rally:



Group A Impreza:



Group A Escort Cosworth:



Bouffier in the Fiesta WRC:



More coming....

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

A couple from the R5 field...





Remember those 911s from earlier? Lordy, the noise. Incredible cars. Thank God the Belgians aren't so obsessed with restricting noise. You could hear these from what felt like miles away:





Still more to follow

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

And a few more from Friday:









To be continued...

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Saturday morning saw a slight change, as we decided to try and catch a bit of the Ypres Historic Rally, which runs alongside the main event, but to a slightly different timetable. I was quite keen to see at least some of it, because it's pretty different to historic rallying in the UK. Events here tend to consist of 90% Ford Escorts, broken up with the odd Porsche or Sunbeam. Not so in Belgium. They appear to move with the times more than us, so the front of the field was dominated by Group A cars from the end of the 80s - no complaints from me about that!

Lancia Delta Integrale:



Celica GT4:



Sierra RS Cosworth:



Audi Quattro:



E30 M3:



More to come...

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

We stayed onto watch the main field run through the same stage, albeit from a slightly different position. I won't bore you with loads of videos of that. But I can't not post a couple more of the 911s:






More to come as I upload it.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Our last viewing point was on the Dikkebus stage. It was probably the best spot of the whole weekend but, sadly, a crash meant that the stage was cancelled after only a handful of cars. We saw the Masters go through, but not much more!

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Couple more:







One more...

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

With an early end to the stages (from our perspective at least), we decided to head back to the hotel, get changed and then head into Ypres for the finish, some food and a beer.

I can't really emphasise how different it is to the UK really. The cars came into town and people were laid back, enjoying food, beer and just soaking up the atmosphere. None of the cuntish behaviour you'd see in the UK, just a chilled out, enjoyable evening. It was quite surreal seeing people sitting outside, eating dinner, while there was a line of rally cars next to them!

When we got into town, the last of the historics were just finishing up their podium:

MVIMG_20190629_192343 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_193055 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_193211 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

MVIMG_20190629_193825 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

We grabbed some dinner and, by the time we'd finished, it was time to watch the podium:

IMG_20190629_214057 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_215547 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Then we just walked around and soaked up the atmosphere:

IMG_20190629_221100 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

MVIMG_20190629_221310 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_221412 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_221726 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

MVIMG_20190629_221959 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_222427 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_222453 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

MVIMG_20190629_222505 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_222814 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_223142 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_223253 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_223725 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

MVIMG_20190629_223736 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

MVIMG_20190629_224033 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

IMG_20190629_233153 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr

Without a doubt, the best rally I've been to by some margin. By the time we headed back to the hotel at about 11:30, the DJ was on the podium and the square was still full of people. They certainly know how to put on an event. It was all super easy to access, locals were doing BBQs and selling beer (for € 1.50-2 a bottle) and everyone was super friendly. In Ypres, all the shops were open late and it was obviously bringing big money to the area too.

The stages were epic, the cars way more interesting than the UK (not a billion MK2 Escorts) and it was definitely helped by the weather - 34 degrees on the Saturday.

If you're a petrol head, I would highly recommend it. It is up there with the Nurburgring in terms of car holidays in my view. Competing in Belgium is now very high up my bucket list.

 

[Twingo 1??]

Looks like you had a good time away Jon. When I have watched the Belgium rallys on the TV the roads look technical but flat.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Looks like you had a good time away Jon. When I have watched the Belgium rallys on the TV the roads look technical but flat.

It's mega really. Hopefully we can start to emulate it with some of our new closed road events, but they are a very long way ahead of us.

The area surrounding Ypres is fairly flat (I'm from Norfolk so I'm used to that), but there are some really nasty bumps and compressions to catch you out. The roads are narrow so there's not much margin for error. I chatted to one British driver. He had only just started going over this year and said that you need big balls to push in places.

 

[Twingo 1??]

It's mega really. Hopefully we can start to emulate it with some of our new closed road events, but they are a very long way ahead of us.

The area surrounding Ypres is fairly flat (I'm from Norfolk so I'm used to that), but there are some really nasty bumps and compressions to catch you out. The roads are narrow so there's not much margin for error. I chatted to one British driver. He had only just started going over this year and said that you need big balls to push in places.

Yes hopefully the closed roads will help us in this country. You need to get up to Mull as I am sure you mentioned you haven't been could be wrong though lol. I really like bumpy tarmac as I started off doing road rallys in Durham/Yorkshire dales and up into Northumberland and like the dark. Nothing gets the blood pumping like doing 100mph down single track lanes using the telegraph posts as references to where the road goes after the crests.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Yes hopefully the closed roads will help us in this country. You need to get up to Mull as I am sure you mentioned you haven't been could be wrong though lol. I really like bumpy tarmac as I started off doing road rallys in Durham/Yorkshire dales and up into Northumberland and like the dark. Nothing gets the blood pumping like doing 100mph down single track lanes using the telegraph posts as references to where the road goes after the crests.

Yeah hopefully. It's a great opportunity to grow the sport in my view. I'd definitely like to go up to Mull. If you like the dark, Belgium might be for you. Apparently they do more of it than us.

 

[Twingo 1??]

Well hopefully will get the car finished this year but then again I have been saying that for the past 2 years. We are not going up yo Mull this year so is only the 4th time in 38 years I have missed the rally .
I would also like to go over to Ireland and do an event and iom. It would be nice to get some closed road events in the North of England as the roads are good.