Winter Romania Rally Victory for Paul Chabloz
HOME » Magazine » March 2024 » Rally News » Winter Romania Rally Victory for Paul Chabloz
The 8th edition of the Winter Romania Rally on 19-21 January was perfect, both in terms of the weather conditions and the intensity of the competition in the different categories. A fierce duel pitted last year’s winners, Paul Chabloz and Philippe Escobar in a BMW 325 IX against the winner of the 2nd edition, Laurent Battut accompanied by Anne-Marie Pomarès in a Toyota Celica 4WD.
Photos Alain Patrice Courtesy Romania Historic Rally
After three days of racing over the 218 kilometres of the 16 special stages, all on snow and ice, Chabloz and Escobar were just 34 seconds ahead. Frédéric Perriat and Cyril Ferrand, also in a BMW 325, completed the all-French podium.
In the 2WD category, Belgian first-timers Luis Marcy and Jean Dilley took their Porsche 911 SC to victory and fifth place overall by a suspenseful 1.4 seconds ahead of the Datsun 240 Z of the Czech pair Ondrej Coufal and Marek Simik.
At the prizegiving ceremony, Paul Lacombe announced that the next edition will follow a new itinerary with new stages. He also announced that he and his team are already preparing for the next Gravel Romania Rally, which will take place on 17-21 June this year.
These stories are all from the pages of Historic Motor Racing News. Some have been abbreviated for this web site. If you'd like to receive the full version, please visit our subscription page where you will find postal subscriptions available. A full subscription also entitles you to access the current issue online (available soon), so you can take it with you and read it anywhere, and we are working on providing full access to our archives of back issues exclusively for our subscribers.