Manu Guigou launches his season with a victory

After distinguishing himself in the Twingo RS R2 Evo and the Clio RS R3 Maxi last season, Manu Guigou returned to the wheel of the Mégane RS N4 during the Rally Le Touquet Pas de Calais. With Cathy Derousseaux at his side, the Team Automeca Florajet driver was one of the great leaders of this first round of the championship.

“We set off very quickly to be at the forefront from the first stages”, confirms Manu Guigou. “The objective was really to play up front. When the roads are dry, it is even more difficult than in the wet. In certain stages, the averages are very high. Are we flirting with an average of 137 km/h? Many curves are taken at almost 200 km/h? And the conditions are particularly complicated to guess the grip from one turn to the next. You have to read the asphalt. Thanks to the advice of Yann Paranthoën, engineer of Renault Sport Technologies, we worked on the settings to find a perfect set-up. »

Leader of the 2-wheel drive traction car from the start of the rally, Manu Guigou never left first place in Group N. Beyond the ambitions in this category, the driver of Team Automeca Florajet also wanted to show the qualities of this Mégane RS N4 on the roads of Le Touquet: “I wanted to be in front of drivers such as Marc Amourette. After SS7, we managed to create a small gap by being in the middle of the WRC and Porsche à la neuvième place du classement général. »

Only a small incident in the night special was going to prevent Manu Guigou from achieving a feat: “We must have lost barely ten seconds but we broke all the headlights. Cathy reacted very quickly by opening the window and lighting the road with a flashlight... I really couldn't see anything, I was moving as quickly as possible by the light of the moon! Then, we were able to follow another competitor who overtook us and guided us to the finish. »

Despite this mishap, Manu Guigou and Cathy Derousseaux retained the lead of Group N until the end of the rally: “We had enough of a head start. We were able to consolidate our position throughout the second day after showing that this Mégane RS N4 equipped with the latest engine development developed by Renault Sport Technologies, in collaboration with RDM, was capable of fighting in the top 10 of the French Championship against to WRCs and Porsches. We were also able to count on Pirelli tires perfectly suited to the Le Touquet course. »

Sixteenth in the final general classification and first in his category, Manu Guigou scores twenty points and occupies eighth place in the French Rally Championship after this first event.

The Automeca team fielded eight cars in competition this weekend. In Le Touquet, Alban Chevilliat had a very good start to the race in the 208 Rally Cup. Nicolas Crochon also showed himself convincingly at the Rallye Pays de Gier in the Renault Sport Challenge. Five crews were at the Rallye de Haute-Provence under the watchful eye of Jean-Michel Astier. Marc Reboa finished second in the Subaru Impreza WRC.