Paul Ricard Proto 6H Endurance Challenge: CD Sport crushes everything!

It was therefore under downpours that the Protos endurance race began. After two laps under the Safety Car regime, the competitors set off, with the three Normas from the CD SPORT team at the head of the race. A dream situation for Claude Dégremont’s drivers. However, the Palmyr and TFT teams do not see the scenario of this race that way. And they attack without delay. Alas, Bruno Bazaud's Norma TFT #6 goes a little hard, spins and goes out. Too bad, he was then fourth in a six-hour race which was only just beginning. It was therefore under Safety Car that the race would resume while waiting for the car to be returned to the pits.

After an hour of racing, the other Norma TFT (Capillaire/Cavailhes/Gelin) had completed part of the planned work and was in third position. But it was David Zollinger?s Norma Palmyr which did the best and finished its 25th lap in second position. For the reigning Champions, it's time for revenge! But be careful: after two hours of racing, the rain is still present, accompanied by violent storms, it is still a CD Sport Norma which is leading, n°32. The team's two other Protos follow in 3rd and 4th positions. It is #1 which is inserted between the lead Norma and the TFT. After two hours of racing, it was still pouring rain. The leading hierarchy does not change and it is the young Timothé Buret who pushes behind, as he did at Le Mans. He climbs to seventh position. There are four CD Sport among the first six and... The Safety Car returns to the track with 3h35 of the race remaining. The chosen Palmyr team's strategy is to bring cars 1 and 2 through the pit lane. The race restarted at 3:33 a.m. and... #1 spun! Thomas Dagoneau is behind the wheel. The Norma #TFT #6 driven by Jean-Lou Rihon does the same and goes out, while Thomas Accary on the #30 achieves the best times on the track and astounds everyone. It was then the turn of Yann Clairay, Trouillet/Gauvin's teammate, to spin off. Fortunately, he preserves his 12th position.

Approaching the halfway point of the race, the #30 overtook the #1 and took second position, just before... The Safety Car returned to the track a third time, due to too much rain. The event resumes with a little over two hours to run. We then noted stops in the pit lane for the Norma CD SPORT #32 and #30, while the #1 pulled itself together, caught up and took the lead. In turn, CD Sport does not see it that way. Everyone gets back into the fight and, 30 minutes from the end, the #30, in full attack, misses and passes the leader - the 8 of TFT and Vincent Capillaire - at the chicane, crossing it. He returned his place unduly won, while the #1, decidedly unlucky, was hit on the track by the best Ligier, the #17 driven by Paul Lafargue.

And then, 20 minutes from the finish, Nicolas Beraud?s 30th finally passes in front of Cavailhes n°8 but the latter does not let him escape and comes back to 2 seconds apart on the penultimate lap. But, Drama! The 8 stops at the fuel pump and loses the race and any hope of a podium, it will finish 4th!

It is therefore a CD Sport double with the n°30 Accary/Foubert/Beraud, followed by the young Pialat/Dannielou and the n°2 car of the Palmyr team, of Buret/Vaglio/Giors. In the category bringing together Elite unmanned crews, the fight lasted until the end and it was finally the Italians Biffis/Rinaldi on the Tatuus who won ahead of the girls on the Juno Reader/Haigh and the Lafargue father and son on Ligier.