Open Country M/T masters 24hrs of France
14.09.2009
16.00 Sunday 13 September - Nicolas Gibon of team Technoraid crosses the finish line and takes sixth place overall in the 2009 24 Heures Tout Terrain 4x4 de France. The Bowler Wildcat, fitted with TOYO TIRES Open Country M/T had completed 144 gruelling laps of the 10km course and acheived second in the TIA4 class. During the race, three drivers piloted the car with Patrick Martin and André Bastet sharing the success. Having worked their way up from 15th on the grid, the team narrowly missed 5th spot after being overtaken by the buggy of Boullet in the final hour of the race.
This years race was the 23rd since the 24 Heures began in 1993. 90 cars took the start for the endurance race near Paris necessitating a 500 metre long starting grid. Unusaully for an endurance race, organisers of the 24hours stop the race at 21.00 on saturday evening restarting the competition at 23.00 but in the opposite direction. This novel twist was introduced to test the drivers ability to adapt, especially those who knew the course well. First used for the 2007 race, the reverse feature proved so popular it has been retained ever since.
Technoraid also competed in a second Bowler piloted by Arnaud Dubrisay, Pascal Bourgeois, François Louchard and Etienne Smulevici which completed 129 laps of the course. The team had to push their Open Country M/T tires hard to take their car from their start position of 31st to their 17th place finish.
In fact, it turned out to be a race of attrition with just 61 classified at the finsih. Four further cras finished but with less than 40% of the total distance travelled they were not classified. The rest didnt make the distance.
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