Over the years the 24 Heures de Rouen, the first round of the UIM World Endurance Championship has always attracted a fair few drivers who regularly compete in the UIM F2 World Championship and the 54th running of the event was no exception.
With ten boats competing for the S2 Class honours, the field split between using DAC and Moore hulls, it proved to be third time lucky for Edgaras Riabko, who was racing for the New Star Team.
Finally, after two unsuccessful years I have finished in Rouen, not just that but finished second in the class
said the delighted Lithuanian driver.
For me it was a very big win, because it’s the most difficult race in the world for a human and for the boat.
As with any long distance race the team soon began to hit problems along the way. The biggest headache came from over heating the power steering system, caused by running with bigger steering drums than in previous years. At one stage Riabko was brought back to the pits because the sister boat being raced by Roman Vandyshev, Shaun Torrente and Mikhael Kitashev needed a new system.
The team boss thought that the Vandyshev boat was leading the class” said Riabko “I was told to head back to the pits so they could take our system, but the Team Manager told him that our boat was in second place and that their boat was twenty laps behind us. So they then sent me back out and Vandyshev finished the race without power steering.
An extremely tired Vandyshev was relieved to see the chequered flag,
The goal was always two boats on the podium
said the Russian driver after the prize presentation,
We delivered that.
Fourth in class was the Team Abu Dhabi DAC hull driven by Rashed Al-Tayer, along with Thani Al-Qemzi and Alex Carella. The team lost their chance of retaining their S2 Class title when Carella barrel rolled the DAC after 267 laps and the crew dropped down the rankings from second in class while the boat was being repaired.
During the previous day the Emirati quartet of Mohammed Al-Mehairbi, Faleh Al-Mansoori, Rashed Al-Remeithi and Majed Al-Mansoori had actually led overall for a short period of time some two hours into the race. Then on lap 87 disaster struck their boat when their F2 reserve driver, Al-Remeithi was caught out by the spray coming from two boats running ahead of him. With rain causing visibility problems the young UAE driver had got to close and over he went. Fortunately the Emirati was not injured in the incident but the left sponson on his DAC was completely destroyed in the impact.
French driver Sébastien Lemoine didn’t make it past Sunday night in his Navikart Racing Moore hull. Just after 11pm they were towed back to the pits with mechanical problems. The number four piston needed changing, which took the mechanics just under an hour to fix. When they finally made it back onto the water it only took another twenty five minutes before the connecting rod broke and it was ‘game-over’ for this normally reliable team.
Lemoine’s fellow countryman Fabrice Boulier in the Touax Pegase Racing Team Moore was also having a race to forget. Several mechanical issues had plagued their twenty four hours, with them having to change nearly everything bar the engine block. With just a couple of hours till the chequered flag made its appearance they too were brought to a grinding halt with a connecting rod failure.
The S2 Class honours went to the Team Privilege – Tullio Abbate entry, who ran a wise and trouble free twenty four hours around the Ile Lacroix course, clocking up an incredible 766 laps. The overall race win went to the French Team Nollet crew that included the now five-time Rouen winner Philippe Chiappe, and his CTIC Shenzhen team-mate Peter Morin.
Although Team Nollet came under very little pressure, their winning margin was still only thirty laps, which makes you ask the question, how long will it be before an F2 entry wins Rouen out-right?
