Romain Dumas : site officiel

The 11th running of the Tour de Corse Historic Rally took place between 4 - 8 October. The 200 competitors, including 116 in the HVC class, visited more than 120 towns and villages along the route.
The long event, with international status accredited by the Fédération Internationale Automobile, takes place over 4 days, with 17 special stages, with a total length of 1150 kilometres including 315 which were timed.
There were several star names entered, including Philippe Gache (the winner) Jean Claude Andruet, Alain Oreille, Henri Pescarolo and Erik Comas for this event which wounds its way around the Beautiful Island, sometimes over the same special stages that the Corsica Rally uses. Romain Dumas was down to drive the No 12 Porsche 911 entered by LVR Racing.
All the drivers had great fun driving through Ile-Rousse, Porto, Propriano and Porto-Vecchio and the many spectators enjoyed seeing the pre-1981 cars.

On Day 1, Romain was getting to grips with the event. The car's handbrake was not working too well and he found the steering very heavy, but he was still able to finish the first evening in Porto in eight place overall.

The next day, the Porsche driver put in some good performances from the first of the day's stages and throughout the day, he was putting on a good show for the spectators. He felt the tyres were a bit fragile and were just about shot by the end of the special stage. But it was still good news overall, because at the end of Day 2, Romain had climbed up to fourth in the overall standings.

On the third day of the rally, Romain really found his stride. He set the third and fourth fastest times in the first two stages and had a place on the podium in his sights. But then his chances suffered a blow. Firstly, the petrol cap started leaking and allowed fuel to slosh around the inside of the car. That alone would not have been too critical but then the gearbox jammed itself in second.

The last day of the event saw Romain retiring his No 12 Porsche 911 from the rally. The gearbox problems from the day before had proved to be too serious to be His crew took out both the engine and the gearbox but there was nothing that could be done.

After he had retired, Romain said: "Apart from the final result, it was a very interesting event. You get the spirit of rallies from the 70's and 80's again. Everyone talks to each other and it's nothing like today's "modern" rallies. And don't think we were just poodling around, the speeds and the times were quite serious. The special stages throughout the rally are really great to drive and you get to meet people who are really enthusiastic about the older cars, whether they are the drivers or the fans".

Crédit Photos : Fred Traversari - Asa Terre de Corse