Late update today with my impending nuptials tomorrow. Not sure I will be able to give you a full update tomorrow so will point you in the direction of the Tour Auto website – trust me, it will be worth your time looking up the results as it’s turning out to be very close and we are down to just one more day now.
I’ve attached a photo from Thursday as the guys approached Aix-les Bains (by the lake).
Shaun also managed to brake a clutch pedal yesterday with all those heavy gear changes but it was all fixed up by the side of the road.
Today included the usual three stages – although all three were road stages and there was no circuit racing today.
Summary of the performances today are as follows:
Stage 9
Yet again Ludovic Caron took the spoils in his AC Cobra with Lajournade coming in 7 seconds down in his E Type (behind another E Type in 2nd place). Shaun and Kevin finished the stage in 5th losing another 17 seconds to Caron. Tim Summers’ Cobra ended the stage in 10th spot (+28s). Sadly Mark Freeman’s Cobra didn’t place a time so it looks like they have now formally withdrawn from the race after problems earlier in the week.
Stage 10
I hope you are all sitting down and prepared for some bad news on Stage 10. Unfortunately it looks like our favourite Cobra crashed out on the stage and dropped 3mins 43 secs to the winning car. I know you will all be disappointed to see Ludovic Caron finishing this stage in 70th place but I’m sure you will find the strength to wipe away the tears when I tell you that the stage was won by Kevin and Shaun. However, they only picked up a few seconds on Lajournade back in 5th. Tim Summers finished the stage in a very worthy 3rd place just a couple of seconds behind Shaun and Kevin.
A disastrous stage for Caron dropped him down to 8th place (+2m59s) and effectively out of the running, barring disasters for a number of other cars. After Stage 10 Lajournade in the E Type took over the overall lead with just 13 seconds over Shaun and Kevin. Tim Summers’ Cobra was placed 6th overall (+2m11s).
Stage 11
In the final stage of the day our old friend Ludovic Caron was back in form at the wheel putting in a great effort to win the stage. Tim Summers finished in 4th (+8s) and Shaun in 5th (+10s). Lajournade’s E Type was a little behind – crossing the line 14 seconds behind Caron on the stage.
However, here is the bombshell you have been waiting for. As you know from previous experience, the Tour Auto can turn up some big surprises just when you least expect it. Although penalties are usually not published until the following day, it seems that our friendly E Type driver must have picked up a pile of penalties today as he has dropped down to 2nd place and he is now 51 seconds behind the leader. And the leading car is.... Shaun and Kevin in the AC Cobra.
That means they have a 51 second lead over Lajournade and a 2m36s lead over Ludovic Caron. Tim Summers’ Cobra is in a very strong 6th place at the moment but as he is only 4 seconds behind the Merlin Cobra he could climb up to 5th if all goes well.
So with one day to go here are some stats from Kevin for you when comparing the Cobra’s expected performance versus the 2nd placed E Type:
“Tomorrow we have one Special stage and one race track (Paul Ricard). Shaun, in theory should be quicker at PR by approx 20 seconds. Today we had three special stages (tomorrow we have only one) Today's stages:
1) E Type beat us by 10 sec
2) We beat E Type by 4 sec
3) We beat E Type by 3 sec”
Any predictions on the final result?
For the Saturday results please follow the link to the Tour Auto website:
http://peterauto.peter.fr/en/evenement/ ... Optic+2ooo
Hit the button for “Results” then follow the VHC column all the way to the bottom (it’s the first column of results).
To see the results AFTER the end of Day 5 – select “Classement fin Etape 5”
There will be a PDF on there for any penalties on Day 5 too but these are usually far behind.
By the time the penalties get formally published online I would expect to see photos on the website of the winners popping the champagne corks. But who will it be.....?
