Unusual team takes part in French round of World Rally Championship (WRC)

Invited by the FFSA (French Federation of Motor Sport) on the occasion of the “Tour de Corse” (Corsica Racing Rallye) 2015, Luc Costermans, who is blind, and his co-driver, Mario Porcel, were on the start line.

As we are getting home from our Corsican trip, I would like to start this summary with words of thanks…

First of all, I want to thank my co-driver, Mario Porcel, without whom this adventure wouldn’t have been possible. He was not only at my sides, but we also drove his vehicle for the Shakedown: a Renault Mégane RS of 250 Hp.

I would also like to thank Florent Mariani, the race official. Florent helped us during the reconnaissance lap by heading first and asking other vehicles to pull over on the side of the road. The operation wasn’t that easy as, at some point, the road was just 2.5-meter wide. Just imagine the face of other contestants when Florent explained them they were about to cross the road of a blind driver !

A huge thank you to Dylan and Florian, who came there especially to close the special stage of the rally without any authorization… We are in Corsica…

Another big thank you to Aude ! I am deeply sorry for taking her man hostage for several days… But the race goes first !

We arrived in Corsica on Saturday, a few days before the Shakedown to which Mario and I had been invited to close the special stage. I therefore jumped at the opportunity to see my Corsican friends again.

As I received many invitations, I visited the Gulf of Ajaccio at the weekend and on Monday. During the tour, we explained how our team works, get equipped with useful tools to ensure our security during the upcoming reconnaissance lap, and contacted our friendly Corsican journalists.

The pressure began to rise on Tuesday. On that day, we had lunch with our main sponsor, Caroline Ceccaldi, in a hut close to the airport. Then we took the road to Corté in order to get our badges back, as well as our racing number and the mandatory stickers for the car.

We briefly crossed the service park, where the excitement was palpable. Indeed, drivers were covering their reconnaissance lap in the Shakedown.

After exchanging pleasantries, we finally went to the racing area. What a surprise! None of the race officials knew about our coming, and there were lots of cars in this special stage. Mario, who was driving the car, described to me the winding road, which was getting very narrow at some points, hilly and damaged…

In the late afternoon, we met Florent, who offered his help to clear the path by night and allow us to discover the course in our car.

At 10 pm, I was in the driver’s seat, ready for the first lap… which was very difficult. It was the first time that Mario was my co-driver at a rally special stage, moreover a night stage. After two attempts, we gave up. Though the headlights were on, Mario had to correct the directions very often because of the lack of far-distance vision. This obstacle forced us to suspend our reconnaissance lap.

We put the FFSA stickers on the car on Wednesday morning. Then we went to the service park, where we met the communication department of the Federation and took pictures. Several race officials came to meet us and encourage us for our upcoming race.

Our team met at 2 pm. Dylan closed the road at the top of the special stage while Florian closed the road at the end, both waiting for us to arrive. Meanwhile, Florent was clearing the path with his Citroën Saxo VTS. After two climbs, we had to stop, because the special stage was crowded like a highway as everybody wanted to attend the shakedown before it ended.

So we invited the team to visit the service park. There, we met Julien Maurin, Winner of the 2014 France Rally Championship, and we chatted with him for a long while. He said he would attend one of our future activities and drive a car blindfolded.

Then, Romain Dumas explained us his goals for this “Tour de Corse”: getting closer to François Delecour with his GT3 Porsche at the RGT Rally Cup. Unfortunately, Romain was forced to retire on the second day.

At the end of the day, Alain Pénasse, Team Manager at Hyundai WRC, invited us to discover the cathedral he had erected in the service park : 7 trucks were forming a showroom of 45-meters long, 15-meters wide and 8-meters high. The structure was remarkable, and much bigger than the showroom of Volkswagen or Citroën.

Thursday, 1st October : D-Day ! “We said we would do it, so now we have to do it !”, Mario said to me without conviction while we were having breakfast…

At 10 am, we went to the shakedown pit lane with the journalist of Corse Matin. We introduced ourselves to the race director and officials and discussed with them about how they would organize our race to close the special stage.

At 12 am, just after adding a last-minute sponsor sticker on the car, we went to Corté service park for the last time. France 3 Television was waiting for us to report on our surrealistic team.

We also met my friend David Serieys, Director of the rally, who challenged me last year in June to cover today’s shakedown.

I sent some text messages to Michèle Mouton and Julien Ingrassia, co-driver of Sébastien Ogier, and called my friend Philippe Jeanjean to share with him the final preparations before the challenge, which I’m going to detail precisely, just like if you were there with me…

2:30 pm: I’m standing in front of the timekeeping chip, waiting for the race officials to give me my start time. Tension rises in the car as the rain falls. “Start is delayed”, a race official says. The preceding contestant lost control of his car only 600 meters ahead of the finish line. No more race for him ! His car is lying in the ravine…

2 :40 pm : The race official counts down. I select the first gear and step on the gas. TV journalists are watching us. We have to look good. Mario is surprised by this lightning start and stammers a bit when reading his notes. We are approaching the first hairpin bend and I can hear the race officials loudly cheering for us. It’s normal, Florent is there.

Second hairpin bend ! This is where it really started ! I covered the reconnaissance lap on tarmac yesterday and, today, I’m discovering the special stage on a muddy ground. Nothing surprising ! A road used by 400 contestants cannot be clean very long… The climb is very difficult. Nothing looks like what I felt yesterday. I’m driving on pebbles, mud, rocks… Moreover, it’s raining… This is quite frightening… Sometimes, I’m wondering if the car is still on the road. After crossing the finish line, Mario will explain to me that, sometimes, he couldn’t see the tarmac and it was very difficult for him to guide me correctly. Moreover, fog was quite heavy and there was fogging in the car.

As we are approaching the timekeeping cell at the finish line, we see, in the bend of the road, a contestant encountering difficulties, and we only just avoid hitting his car. Startled, the drivers jump into the ravine…

A few hundred meters further, we cross the finish line. A good number of race officials are there to cheer for us and they are going wild.

Magical moment in the car ! Mario tells me: “We did it!” We hug for a long time, grateful to each other for doing such a great job !

Race officials give us the book number 174, with our start and finish time as well as our timing for the special stage. We receive our “precious”sesame like the other contestants.

After this peak of emotions, Mario is back in the driver seat. We are going to Ajaccio. Our sponsors are waiting for us to exhibit the Mégane RS number 174 on la Place du Diamant, where the departure ceremony takes place.

During the autograph session with the drivers, to which we are invited, we meet Julien Ingrassia, who joined us last June in Ledenon with Michèle Mouton to drive blindfolded. He introduces me to Sébastien Ogier, who tells me he would like to try our sport if his schedule allows it in 2016. I’m talking with my fellow countryman, Thierry Neuville. François Delecour taps on my shoulder to hear about the shakedown. I also come across Stéphane Sarrazins and invite him to attend our training in Alès on November 30 with his friends and rivals in the World Endurance Championship, Romain Dumas and Benoît Tréluyer.

Lots of persons congratulate us and ask us to explain how our team works. Meanwhile, France 3 Television is broadcasting the report.

We will never forget this epic race ! I’m very happy to experience this with my friend Mario as we met each other when I was a sighted person. As you can imagine, emotions and sensations are huge ! What a relief to overcome this challenge, when thinking that some drivers had to give up quite quickly…

To conclude, I would like to thank Dominique Serieys, President of the FFSA, and David Serieys for inviting me, as well as the FFSA team, namely Elvira, Valérie, Barbara, Hilaire et many more. I would also like to thank the following persons who supported me : Ari Vatanen, Jean-Pierre Nicolas, Guy Frequelin, Michèle Mouton and many more. And I shouldn’t forget Jean Todt, President of the FIA (International Federation of Motorsport).

Thank you to Relais Ceccaldi for their generosity, Caroline and Jérôme, Décor 2000, who decided to support us at the last minute.

Thanks to this epic adventure, we have raised a significant amount of money for our association “Blind People and their Funny Machines”, that is 10% of our annual budget. It is very important to ensure the future of our association and activities.

Thanks again to you, Mario, for supporting me during the whole challenge.

Hereunder, I have added a YouTube link to watch the TV report of France 3 Television.

https://youtu.be/ucfnhcZvMxQ

Thanks to all of you for supporting us with your mails, with your text messages or in person. Your enthusiasm helped us to overcome this difficult challenge.

See you soon for new exciting adventures…

Luc Costermans