Maxime Potty wins (provisionally) Tieltse TAC Rally

This rally is the fourth of a total of thirteen races for the Belgian championship. Potty strengthens his leading position in the BRC standings. But after the rally, Cherain’s team filed a complaint, but the board of stewards deemed the so-called ‘jump start’ proven and therefore upheld the penalty imposed. The team appealed against the verdict, which means that the result is subject to a final ruling at a later date.

Adrien Fernémont was fourth, ahead of the Dutchman Roger Hodenius and Charles Munster. Gunther Monnens finished seventh and first GT. Vincent Verschueren drove his first race of the season in Tielt. The East Fleming did not make it to the end of the first classification stage due to engine trouble. Niels Reynvoet also had little luck and had to retire in the opening stage with a broken transmission. The first classification stage of the day would immediately have an impact and ultimately be decisive for the further course of the race.

False start

Cherain was 0.7 sec faster than Potty in the opening stage. But Cherain made a false start and that infringement was punished with a ten-second penalty. Potty won two stages in the first loop of four GC stages and thus had a small lead of 4.4 over Cherain. At the end of the second loop, in which Potty won three of the four stages, Potty had a lead of 9.3. Cherain was so eager to close the gap, made a mistake and lost another five seconds in the process.

In the last loop, Cherain gave it all again, but in the end he was 5.2 too slow to win the TAC Rally. Saturday morning’s false start and the associated ten-second penalty time break him down at the end of the race. “We dispute that 10-second penalty for a stolen start,” said Bernard Munster, BMA team manager. “We’ve actually been working on it for a while. It’s a bit of a shame that it couldn’t have happened sooner. The organization has so indirectly forced us to file a complaint.” “We’ll see. I’m already very satisfied with this performance”, responded Maxime Potty, previously winner of the Rally van Haspengouw and the South Belgian Rally. Last week he finished third in the Rallye des Ardennes despite technical problems.

The next race is the Rally of Wallonia at the end of this month.