The “V de V Mugello 6 hours” An unprecedented explosion 28.04.2010: Patience has its limits and following the Icelandic volcano’s example, an explosion took place here at Mugello. A highly anticipated clash, with two mouth-watering grids, despite fewer competitors than expected. V de V GT/Touring Car Endurance Challenge

Patience has its limits and following the Icelandic volcano’s example, an explosion took place here at Mugello. A highly anticipated clash, with two mouth-watering grids, despite fewer competitors than expected.


V de V GT/Touring Car Endurance Challenge
The “V de V Mugello 6 hours”
“Well, it was at home!”





The Diva of the weekend, the Ferrari F430 bearing the number 1, returned home to take the win ahead of its compatriot, the number 17 Lamborghini Gallardo. Despite a good start, the latter lost out on the podium to the JetAlliance Racing team, whose diehard number 36 Porsche 997 Cup arrived fresh from victory.

Back to his old form, Xavier Pompidou took pole for the second time this season in the number 5 Mosler MT900 of teammate Gabriel Abergel, who lined up at the start of a race reduced to 5 hours 30 minutes by the race director after a false start. He wasn’t able to hold out for long against Anthony Beltoise and Fabien Giroix, both behind the wheel of Italian machinery.

Starting sixth behind the Austrians of JetAlliance, Eric Van de Vyver in his number 11 Mosler was hounded by Bernard Moreau (n°14) and Jean-Pierre Champeau (n°65), serving up a magnificent battle for fourth place. As we all know, Jean-Marc Bachelier has a habit of laying his own red carpet straight to the top step of the GTV4 podium, and, despite starting fourteenth, after two hours he was already seventh overall and first among the GTV4s, before handing over the wheel to Eric Vincenot.

Two hours into the race was around the time that the rain chose to arrive, enforcing changes of tyres and drivers. To sum up: Thierry Perrier took the helm of the Diva, delivered to him in fine fettle by Anthony Beltoise; Richard Balandras took the controls of the leading car after Gibon’s stint; Bernard Moreau gave up his seat to Miguel Langin in the number 14 Porsche 996 RSR that had climbed to fourth; and the big news for the V de V clan was that - at just 22 years of age - Guillaume took over from his father for his first race in the Mosler MT900, setting an infernal pace for his rivals as the fastest man on the track throughout the bad weather.

The number 21 Porsche 997 Cup of newcomers Level, proved reassuringly reliable, while locals Cremonesi and Belicchi with their superb Team Duller BMW M3 were simply worried about putting in an appearance following numerous problems. Car number 12 (driven by Ferreira and Bour), which made up a lot of time thanks to a great deal of effort and courage after going off the track in Friday testing, eventually finished seventh. Levy who took over from Langin should have been able to snatch third place from the number 17 Giroix/Valentini/Fatien car, but for a yellow flag on the last lap that prevented him from overtaking.

Bourret (n°76) who led for a good part of the race, lost the leadership further to a collision with another competitor, allowing Pagny to take over command.

First to see the chequered flag was the classic red bodywork of the Ferrari! Behind came the Lichtner-Hoyer/Eckert/Seefried driven car 36, who put in a fantastic performance, fighting their way up to second, ahead of the Lamborghini, which took victory in GTV2 on home soil. After them came Baudinière and Proust’s number 48 Porsche 996 RSR and the number 65 Porsche 997 Cup S driven by Martinet/Tremblay/Champeau.

The number 21 Porsche 997 Cup driven by Italian driver Casadei, alongside Villeroy and Baharian, took second in GTV3, behind number 36.

Roll out the obligatory red carpet, it’s Bachelier and Vincenot taking the GTV4 class ahead of Swiss outfit Boillat, Gindre and Lambotte in the number 131 Porsche 993 Cup and the number 28 Ginetta driven by Nury, Pellerzi and Salam in its second race.


V de V Proto Endurance Challenge
The “V de V Mugello 6 hours”
“Easy does it? No, a hard-earned win!”





Pole-sitters and leaders for three quarters of the race, Rosier and Guillet-Arnaud saw a well-deserved victory slip away due to technical issues. The race was won by reigning champions Mondolot and Zollinger, ahead of their surprising Palmyr teammates, Menahem and Faggionato and the Cavailhes/Romecki duo, who restored the smile to the IRS team’s face. 

Rosier was the name of the second man to take pole this season in Proto Endurance. Zollinger (n°1) had to make do with fourth place on the grid alongside car number 45 from Team WFR, whose entry was noted in V de V. Former Formula 1 driver Philippe Alliot, together with Philippe Haezebrouck, (n°7) started with high hopes.

After a flying start, it was Fargier (n°77) who got the better of the young Extrême Limite driver, who nonetheless set the fastest lap of 1’48’’228. Together they quickly built a lead over the other competitors. Foster, who started in the number 45 Ligier JS49 made life tough for Zollinger who could only follow him. An hour into the race, Caillon in the number 69 Norma M20 F had fought his way up to fifth. Cavailhes in the number 10 Norma was a lap behind the five leaders by this stage.

After two hours of racing and the first refuelling stops, the race order looked a bit topsy-turvy. Rosier was already a lap ahead of Zollinger, Menahem, Firth (n°45) and Robert (n°9). Gérard Le Corre had taken over from Didier Beck in the Palmyr number 6 Norma and was aiming at eleventh place as the third hour began. He was two laps behind Haezebrouck (n°7) who he unsuccessfully attempted to catch for second place among the Gentlemen Drivers.

Freeman and Williams, driving the number 30 Juno SSE entered in CNB, were leading the class and held on to the chequered flag. Behind them, Italian squad Mannino, Maneschi and Barresi, also at the wheel of a Juno SSE (n°21), completed a discreet but effective race, bringing them second place, ahead of Philippe Papin and François Surut, for whom it was the first Proto Endurance race.

Fellow first-timers, the Havette brothers (Guillaume and Adrien), in a Funyo 7 (n°27), won the C3 class ahead of (same car, same team) Gentlemen Drivers Leclere, Marchand and Calem (n°35).

Guillet-Arnaud handed over the first-placed car to his teammate, who inherited a four lap lead over Thirion (n°69), second after Bazaud’s excellent stint. Romecki was looking at third before running out of fuel and losing his position to Faggionato (n°2).

This was the situation as Rosier, taking things gently for over an hour due to engine problems, came back down the pit lane. He refuelled and returned to his box to hand over to Guillet-Arnaud. But disaster was followed by disappointment as they could not get the car going again.

This left the way clear for Zollinger and Mondolot who took advantage of the final handover between Romecki and Cavailhes to take the lead, which they never relinquished. Consolidating their result from Jarama, identical crew Menahem and Faggionato, took the Gentlemen Drivers class with second overall, closely followed by Romecki and Cavailhes (n°10).

-V de V  - also photos