ETAPE 3

PRINCESSES IN PARADISE

Cameras, action. The hills of Auvergne region of central France were looking particularly splendid today. Like something out of film set: a red Italian soft-top straight out of the sixties. Two Princesses, baseball caps pulled down low, long hair trailing behind in the wind. In the background yellow flowering broom carpeting the hills, with a black ribbon of tarmac snaking through the high grass... Cut! It’s a perfect take and the perfect background over which to roll the credits for this 3rd stage of the RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE 2019. Between Vichy and Aix-les-Bains the sun shone on the Princesses and the warm Mistral wind blowing up the Rhône Valley provided a little relief. Because despite the idyllic setting its was hard work for the competitors hauling their stylish but demanding classic cars from corner to corner, up and over mountain passes. A backdrop that will no doubt result in plenty of penalties. And it isn’t over yet. The Alpine mountain peaks are coming into view and will provide plenty of challenges before everyone gets to Saint-Tropez!

THE THREE MOUSQUETAIRES!

As in the story by Alexandre Dumas, there’s actually four of them and the four on the 20th RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE are truly exceptional. The hills of the Auvergne didn’t dent their motivation a jot and all of them are still in the hunt for final honours. Because regularity demands order and discipline, they pulled off the feat of finishing in exactly the same order on the stage and overall! Second stage victory and an overall lead confirmed for CAROLE GRATZMULLER and ELISA NOÉMIE LAURENT (Chevrolet Corvette Stingray n°56) who post the day’s top score with 41 points, just one… second ahead of MARIE and CATHERINE. Overall they are seperated by 6 points. Third on the day… and overall are MARINA ORLANDI CONTUCCI and VALÉRIE DOT (Lancia Beta Monte-Carlo n°90) just one point ahead of the Cobra n°100 of ADELINE PAQUIERS and HÉLÉNA EUVRARD who have exactly 100 points! Of the four cars in the lead today, separated by just 9 points three have already won the RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE at least once! It can’t be by chance…

FLASHBACK : 20 YEARS OF PASSION

Patricia Bertapelle: “We didn’t know a thing about regularity rallies”

Twenty years ago, almost to the day, the RALLYE DES PRINCESSES set off for their odyssey over France’s most scenic roads. With 18 cars on the start line this atypical event broke down stereotypes, allowing women to get behind the wheel on a rally specifically designed for them, by them…

An experienced pilot from the north-east of France, who has competed with success in the Trophée Andros ice racing series, PATRICIA BERTAPELLE has won the RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE on no less than three occasions (2002, 2003 and 2004) in the old ‘mixed’ category. This year she is taking part for the sixth time. She well remembers her debut, on the second edition, in 2001. “I met my co-driver for the first time at the start in Place Vendôme. It was ANNA CLOPET, who was a reporter at Gala Magazine. Neither of us had the slightest notion of regularity rallies. At the end of the first stage we managed to put VW Beatle into second to last place. After that we worked hard on our tactics and managed to climb up to second place on the last stage of the rally which finished in Juan-le-Pains.” 

TOMORROW: A MARATHON DIRECTION SAINT-TROPEZ

Stage 4: Aix-les-Bains - Sisteron - Saint-Tropez (408 km)

Exceptional in every way, this 20th edition of the RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE will tomorrow see the longest stage of the event. More than 400 kilometres to reach Saint-Tropez, on the eve of the final finish. An extra day on the pearl of the Côte d’Azur deserves a little extra effort! On the programme: no less than four mountain passes to cross, starting with the Col de Parquetout, rising to 1,382 metres, with, on its north side, an average incline slope of more than 10%! From the High Alps to Provence it is the famous Route Napoléon that will take the Princesses via Valbonnay,and Devoluy (in the tyre tracks of the Rallye de Monte-Carlo) to lunch in Sisteron. From there they cross the first lavender fields of the Valensole plateau to the Verdon national park. They will then drive alongside the Lac de Sainte-Croix before attacking the Massif des Maures, with its famous cork trees, before arriving in the ‘tres chic’ Saint-Tropez.

INTERVIEWS

Séverine Loeb (Fra/Porsche 911 S n°70): “It was my co-driver Denissa who suggested taking part in the RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE. I had heard about the rally but I didn’t imagine that it was so competitive. We took a couple of days to get our heads around the regularity concept and some misbehaving instruments didn’t help. But now we’ve got the hang of it and are starting to improve our results. You really get into it! The goal for next year is to come with several crews but for that we’ll have to get our entries in a bit earlier…”

Bénédicte Laureys (Bel/Ferrari 250 GTS n°40): “With my Mum this is our ninth participation. The seventh with our Ferrari, which isn’t always easy to haul around these lovely little backroads. We always enjoy ourselves, even if the car hasn’t liked the high temperatures. We not too focused on the results but we’d like to be reasonably well placed overall at the end in Saint-Tropez.”

Alexandra Van Den Bosch (Bel/Ferrari Dino Spider 246 GTS n°73): “It is always great to meet up with everyone at the start of the RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE. The atmosphere is always good, but particularly so on this 20th edition. With my co-driver Stéphane we are trying to stay in the Top 20 but it isn’t easy. On the second ZR this morning for example, just before lunch, there was a sharp hairpin. We couldn’t get the Ferrari round in one go and then we stalled. I think we going to get quite a lot of penalties for that one!

Christelle Garcia (FR/Porsche 356 C n°49: “This is my third participation and I really wanted to come back for the 20th anniversary. There’s a great atmosphere, it’s a formidable human adventure and there’s a lot of nice cars. And then of course we know what we’re doing a bit now and so you start to get quite competitive. I think we’re 13th overall at the moment and we’d like to finish in the Top 10 in Saint-Tropez. For that you have to be pretty concentrated, you have to prepare your road book a little, we work on it for about an hour every evening but the effort pays off.”

Carolina Fisken (It/Porsche Speedster 356 A n°22): “This is our first time but it definitely won’t be our last. And we’ll come back better prepared. I’m surprised how competitive it is and how well equipped some of the crews are in terms of instruments. While we are here we’re raising money for the Himalayan Trust hoping to collect enough to pay for the construction of a school in Nepal. At the moment we’ve hit £100,000 (approx. 112,000 €) and we’re hoping to get up to £140,000. If anybody would like to donate the website is https://www.justgiving.com/paulandnepa