CML Off-Road Masters 2017

25 JAN 2017

Once again the BCL Louvres club were the host for the annual CML Masters meeting.

Based in the small town of Louvres only a few kilometres from Charles De Gaulle airport it’s an absolute doddle to get to so the UK CML Super-team of Jason Potter, Russell Lee and Keith Robertson flew over Friday to get some practice in ready for racing on Saturday and Sunday.

The venue is a large sports hall that has more than enough space for a huge track, pitting for everyone and a great food area for the racers. Perhaps most importantly considering the sub-zero temperatures outside (Saturday morning was -7 degrees!) the hall has very good heating so it was warm enough for t-shirts inside.

The track layout as expected was varied and challenging. The main features were a couple of double jumps which required precision to get right and nail the down ramp for the best lap times. Despite these being a bit tricky with the jumps having flat tops there was the option to land on top without risking a crash or compromising lap times too much which meant all level of drivers had fun.

Proline Pin-Point tyres were the control rubber for the rear axle in all classes with Pin-Point fronts for 4wd and Short Course, and Wedge Squared for 2wd. For this meeting tyre additive was allowed which made grip even better and wear was so good many drivers were using the same tyres all day. Great news.

Practice was available all day on Friday with a voucher system in use to make sure drivers all got a fair shot at getting track time. This worked great and just as well as most the racers were in attendance to get in some stick/wheel time in preparation for qualifying. There was practice on both Saturday and Sunday mornings too for those unable to make the Friday.

Race format was a little different to the UK with a round of practice where your best two consecutive laps would determine your start position going into the three rounds of qualifying, which counted the best two results on a round by round basis to determine your finals position. This meant that everyone had three leg finals with the best two results to count. More racing for all which is what most people prefer.

Saturday was for 4wd and 2wd ‘Promotion’ 13.5. This is a popular class in France and isn’t ‘blinky’ so allows timing to be added on the ESC to give a bit extra speed without being manic for those that don’t want the super-fast cars that 4wd and open motors provide.

In the 2wd Promotion finals the top four drivers were nip and tuck all the way, very even on pace and battling all the way. In the end it was Laurent who took the overall win and the Brits fought through the field well to improve on their grid positions:

Laurent Le Brun
Franck Habouzit
Sebastien Mure
Mathieu Ehrhart
Damien Dolle
Aurelien Desray
Jason Potter
Russell Lee
Roger Tison
Fabien Coulon
Axel Constantin
Vincent Lambert

The 4wd saw some great racing between Mathieu, Armand and Roman as they swapped places at the front a few times in each race, but in the end it was Mathieu that held his nerve to take the win:

Mathieu Briere
Romain Valter
Armand Lantheaume
Michael Villa
Pierre Raboulin
Francois Guerbois
Raphael Robert
Julian Ferrandis
Florent Gallot
Julien Formentin
Arnaud Matohanza
Johan Catilina

The track layout remained the same on Sunday for the 2wd Short Course and 2wd Open classes.

Qualifying in Short Course was dominated by the Associated of Cedric Devilliers ahead of Samuel Castel and Nicolas Evens. Russ again made the A final, lining up in 9th.

2wd Open qualifying was very close, as expected. It was Julian Ferrandis that fulfilled some of his potential to take pole position ahead of Armand Lantheaume and last year’s winner Ludovic Valtier. Keith improved his pace all day to make a solid 5th on the grid.

The Short Course finals were dominated by Cedric Devilliers who won all three legs, a fine achievement as he didn’t race on Saturday and was very busy helping with the organisation of the meeting and doing race commentary. Nicolas Evens moved up from his grid position to take second with Samuel Castel in third.

Cedric Devilliers
Nicolas Evens
Samuel Castel
Christophe Raboulin
Laurent Halluin
Laurent Le Brun
Stephane Gibert
Roger Tison
Russell Lee
Christian Godart
Cyril Sausset
Fabien Bellenger

The 2wd Open finals were full of incident and whilst there had been a great atmosphere from the crowd for all the races it was certainly ramped up for the A finals. Things didn’t go the way of pole man Julian but they did for Armand as he took the first two legs to claim the win. Behind him the fight for the remaining podium spots was intense and in the final leg it was young Clement Boda who showed that he is an amazing up and coming talent to put a great pass over the double jump on Keith for the win and clinch second overall. Ludovic took the last spot on the podium in third.

Armand Lantheaume
Clement Boda
Ludovic Valtier
Frederic Laigle
Keith Robertson
Julian Ferrandis
Mathieu Briere
Thibault Berthier
Valentin Peuziat
Julien Formentin
Romain Valter
Pierre Raboulin

Congratulations to all the winners!!

We would like to say a massive thanks to the BCL club members for all their hard work. They did a sterling job at technical inspection and track repairs, and the meeting ran smoothly with any issues dealt with quickly and efficiently. Also thank you very much to the people who kept us fed and watered for the weekend! With a variety of co-sponsors there were some great raffle prizes to win and some lovely plaques for those that were lucky enough to do well in their finals. The club worked hard to accommodate everyone who wanted to race, running 12 car heats and finals (which was fine on the large track) but it was over-subscribed so apologies to anyone who did not make it in.

We’re looking forward to next year already!!