Day 6 Report: Foum Zguid-Agadir
3 stages, stage distance = 261km, liaison distance = 259km, total = 520km
After more than 12 hours of flat-out driving and 1000 kilometres of competition, the two leaders of the Rallye International du Maroc are separated by just 34 seconds heading into the final day of a week’s rallying.
This sort of margin, which is just the blink of an eye on the challenging stages of Morocco, is more commonly seen on a World Championship sprint rally rather than an epic historic event.
But this is the cushion that Michele Mouton will have as she approaches the final three stages of the event over Gregoire de Mevius, both at the wheel of Porsche 911s but with rival teams: Kronos Racing and Tuthill Porsche.
There was drama on the first competitive section this morning from Foum Zguid to Tata when de Mevius broke a driveshaft 15 kilometres into a long 19-kilometre stage. This deprived his Kronos Porsche of drive and he could only watch his 20-minute lead slip away. However, co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul came to the rescue, using his mechanical knowledge to change the driveshaft in the stage in just 23 minutes.
“It’s something that we practised in the workshop but that was a long time ago and it wasn’t in the middle of the desert surrounded by sand!” said Gilsoul. “Luckily I remembered how to do it. But it wasn’t easy as there was quite a lot of stress and it’s a very tricky job, with not so much room for manoeuvre. In the end we had no choice because if we had not been able to change the driveshaft then we would have been forced to stop – and obviously we didn’t want to do that. We still have a good chance to win I think.”
A storming drive from De Mevius meant that he nonetheless managed to complete the stage seventh-fastest after the driveshaft was fixed, but he was now a couple of minutes behind Mouton, who in the meantime had overhauled South Africa’s Geoff Bell.
“I don’t know if I’m leading or not, but in my mind I still want to be third!” said Mouton. “I’m not even thinking about leading or winning; definitely not. I’m just going to keep driving at the pace I have always done.”
De Mevius tried his hardest to make up time on the following stage and although he won it by 20 seconds, a puncture – which was maybe the result of his eagerness to claw back the deficit – cost him several minutes. The final stage, run entirely on asphalt, was a much more emphatic victory for de Mevius. The Belgian now lies just over half a minute behind Mouton, setting the scene for a thrilling finale to the revival of the Rallye International du Maroc.
A total of 16 cars will start the final day from Agadir, which once again is set to be run in warm temperatures in excess of 30 degrees centigrade. For many, including the Citroen DS of former Maroc winner Bob Neyret, and Peugeot 504 driver Bjorn Waldegard, it is just a question of getting to the finish of the 2,830-kilometre event. Waldegard is planning to contest just one of tomorrow’s three stages tomorrow in order to make sure that he is classified as a finisher. Neyret meanwhile plans just to drive the road section.
The final day of the rally takes the competitors back to Marrakech, where the rally started a week ago. Three stages will be run, making a total of 170 stage kilometres and 190 road kilometres.
Top 10 classification after day six:
1 Michele Mouton (F)/Fabrizia Pons (I) Porsche 911 12h27m53s
2 Gregoire de Mevius (B)/Nicolas Gilsoul (B) Porsche 911 12h28m27s
3 Geoff Bell (ZA)/Tim Challen (EAK) Porsche 911 12h31m51s
4 John Lloyd (GB)/Adrian Cavenagh (GB) Ford Escort 13h36m40s
5 Steve Troman (GB)/Calvin Cooledge (GB) Porsche 911 13h47m33s
6 Jac Nelleman (DK)/Joseph Huber (CH) Porsche 911 15h22m19s
7 Frederic Daunat (F)/Guy Chirqui (F) Citroen DS 15h52m38s
8 Aslam Khan (EAK)/Ashard Khan (EAK) Ford Escort 18h02m00s
9 Derek Melville (GB)/Peter Lythell (GB) Porsche 911 18h23m43s
10 Albert Michiels (B)/Patrick de Coninck (B) Porsche 911 19h12m22s
– Credit: Rallye du Maroc.