For the 3rd round of this year's edition from the ORC Canal Rally, held for the 16th time in and around Oostrozebeke, we went to the 'point of spectacle' that is at the start of the SS since last year. Back then we missed it, so we definitely had to visit it now! Cars have to do 2 rounds of this roundabout right after the stage start, before they head for the longest stage of the rally: SS De Ginste is 14.52 km long this year (2.56 km more than last year).
In this rally, the historic competitors drive first in reverse order (starting with the slower competitors, and ending with the fastest), followed by the modern competitors, from the fastest to the slowest.
Since this year, this stage is driven 5 (!) times, this is the 3rd pass. This stage has some wide roads and long straights, making possible an equal battle between Porsches and R5/Rally2 cars!
Stage results overall top 10:
1. Melissa Debackere (3, Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) completed in 8:38.5 (avg 100.8 km/h)
2. Pieter-Jan Michiel Cracco (5, Porsche 991 GT3) +11.9
3. Patrick Snijers (2, Porsche 997 GT3) +16.4
4. Xavier Beel (7, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X R4) +25.8
5. Chris Vandamme (4, Alpine A110 Rally RGT) +30.8
6. Thierry Cokelaere (8, BMW 1M Coupé) +34.5
7. Cris Algoedt (9, BMW 1M Coupé) +40.5
8. Lander Depotter (1, Opel Corsa Rally4) +45.0
9. Paul Lietaer (245, Ford Escort RS 1800 MKII) +50.6
10. Kjell Vandenberghe (11, BMW 1M Coupé) +52.4
After this stage, Debackere is leading with 1:34.3 minutes over Snijers. Beel is still 3rd on +2:53.3.
Results historic top 5:
1. Paul Lietaer (245, Ford Escort RS1800 MKII) completed in 9:29.1 (avg 91.9 km/h)
2. Bert Cornelis (246, Opel Monza) +6.9
3. Stefaan Prinzie (249, Opel Ascona 400) +7.2
4. Ludovic Vitse (248, Opel Astra GSi 16V) +13.8
5. Koen Verhaeghe (247, Ford Escort RS1600 MKI) +34.3
Mathieu Vandoolaeghe, leader in historic with his Mercedes-Benz 190E Diesel after the stage in my previous video, has retired on SS5 and also did not start in round 3. He restarted in SuperRally in round 4.
That makes Cornelis is now in the lead, but Vitse is still following on +8.0 seconds. Prinzie is 3rd on +51.1. Christophe Kerkhove (242, Porsche 911 ST) who was also in the podium battle before, has fallen behind, he lost 2 minutes on the previous run on this stage. Paul Lietaer has climbed back to P6 historic at the moment on +2:37.9 after Cornelis.
Thumbnail: Kris Schoenmakers (229, Opel GT)
Enjoy the video!
00:00 Course cars
01:18 Historic competitors (reverse order)
15:01 Course cars
16:42 Modern competitors
48:37 Stage finished