After eight gruelling stages on the second day of the Rallye du Chablais in Switzerland, the #2 BMW M3 E30 of Marc Valliccioni and Yoann Raffaelli was the first EHRC car home on the team’s championship debut. Overnight leaders Mats Mysell and Esko Junttila finished in second place, 1m39s behind the BMW.
The #4 Lancia Rally 037 of championship leaders Ville Silvasti and Risto Pietilainen was keeping pace with the leaders until an accident on SS8 put the Finns into retirement. The #11 BMW M3 of Michel Ducreux and Ramona Formica finished third in Category 4, 4m22s behind Valliccioni’s M3.
In Category 3 the Audi quattro of ‘Zippo’ and Denis Piceno was repaired overnight and the Italians were on a charge to make up lost ground. ‘Zippo’ posted the fastest overall times on SS8 and SS9 until a Turbo failure sidelined the Audi once again on SS10.
The #14 Porsche 911 SC of Pentti Veikkanen and Timo Jaakkola looked odds on to take the Category 3 victory when a blown head gasket on SS11 dropped the Finns down behind the Ford Escort of Tim Metcalfe and John Connor. Veikkanen coaxed the Porsche home to finish in second place just 16.8 seconds behind the Ford.
The Ferrari 308 GTB of Andrew McAlpine and Andy Bull finished in third spot after the #16 Porsche of Spanish duo Fernando Dameto and Guifre Pujol retired on the first stage of say with mechanical failure.
Category 2 was won by the #10 Ford Escort RS1800 of Marty McCormack and Barney Mitchell, the British crew ending the day in 3rd place overall and 6m08s ahead of championship leader Carlo Mylle, and his co-driver Steven Vyncke, in the #9 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR. Paolo Pasutti and Giovanni Campeis were another retirement, the #12 Porsche stopping on SS12.
In Category 1 the Ford Escort Twin Cam of Ernie and Karen Graham romped home to take the British team’s third win of the season from three starts. They finished 5m53.9s ahead of reigning champions Antonio Parisi and Giuseppe D’Angelo in the #19 Porsche 911 S, with James Potter and Caroline McCormack in the #22 Ford Cortina GT fighting back to move ahead of the #20 BMW 2002 Ti of Carlo Fiorito and Marina Bertonasco on the final stage of the day to secure third place by just 8.3 seconds.
The next rally on the 2022 FIA European Historic Rally Championship calendar is the Mecsek Rallye in Hungary on the 23-25 June.
