5th Legend Boucles De Spa

	Winter returned in the night, but Bruno Thiry and Nicolas Gilsoul in the Quattro put in a great performance in the closing stages to win the event

David Limage Reports

The Legend of Bruno Thiry

On February 20th, Bruno Thiry fulfilled one of his oldest dreams: winning the Boucles de Spa to add his sparkling list of rallying achievements. To do it, he struggled to see off tough rivals, such as the first WRC champion in history, the 66 year-old, ever-young Swede, Björn Waldegård. With a less friendly weather forecast than in previous years, 289 competitors left Spa town among a surreal chaos on all the possible roads coming in to town, recalling the golden era of the event in period. Ari Vatanen, open and friendly, was the most acclaimed competitor, driving the course car with his younger son Max alongside. The third former WRC champion in the starting line up (with Stig Blomqvist) was at the wheel of an Opel Ascona very similar to the one he used in his early rallying career. Having lost none of his style, he made the car dance to the joy of between 30 and 40.000 spectators on ice, black ice, mud and snow. François Chatriot (Mazda RX7), co-driven by Denis Giraudet, (the winning team here in 1994), did not have time to enjoy the ride, their clutch letting them down from SS2.

Droogmans was a leading contender until crashing out on the penultimate stage Photos François Haase

In contrast to French events, where the historic entries are mainly made up of Porsches, competitors here seemed to have gathered every Escort MK2 alive on the planet. Many of the stars were at the start in this model, such as Stig Blomqvist, Snijers, Droogmans and the very promising rally youngster Thierry Neuville, as well as local ace Kurt Heckters.

	Another celebrity driver was Marc Duez. Navigated by Koen Wauters, they ran into some trouble and finally finished 35th

The fast Brit Mark Solloway, attracted by the very young reputation of the event, brought his yellow Escort to the Ardennes. His countryman David Paveley had a very nice Mazda RX7 in the old factory livery, while another Englishman, Richard Lepley, brought an unusual and beautiful Vauxhall Chevette. Unfortunately none of these three reached the finish in spite of a strong performance from Solloway, definitely fighting amongst the best. But there were Porsches too, with strong entries from multi winner Marc Duez – still in the running for a win until he drove a lap less in a stage and inherited a huge penalty. Finn Harri Rovanperä was driving a 911 SC RS rebuilt like a jewel, and ex-F1 driver Eric Van de Poele did very well but got a picture from the police for speeding on the road section!

Stig Blomqvist and Robert Jakobsson finished seventh driving one of a raft of Ford Escort MKIIs. It was as if every running example of the model turned out for the Boucles this year

A greatly appreciated car was the huge Mercedes 500 SLC automatic driven by Tim Van Parijs. Magic sound and spectacular behaviour guaranteed!

For a full report see our April issue