Special, from the outset, because it is the 20th edition, the 2017 24 Hours TT Vila de Fronteira will go down in history also because of the way in which a theater coup, in the last hour of the race, decided the name of the winner. With the Lucky and Unlucky lottery giving the gold, not to the bandit, but to some as unexpected as surprised Latvians!
After having walked ahead for most of the race and already with the goal just a few laps away, the mechanical problems ended up dashing the hopes of both the AC Nissan Proto from Andrade Competition, then in first place, as from the MMP Evo 3 of the Thierry Charbonnier team. With what happened to have even streaks of almost evil, when they happen, both, with the goal already appearing on the horizon.
Believing in victory, to feel defeat
Despite the various problems they had faced throughout the race, having even had to change the assisted steering of the AC Nissan Proto three times, the team of Mário and Alexandre Andrade, Cédric Duple, Yann Morize and Luís Ribeiro, was the one that, with the entry in the last hour of the race, better positioned to win the 24 Hours of Frontier. Not only because it was ahead, but also because it had the runner-up, the MMP Evo 3 of the French Thierry Charbonnier, who was a team with Paulo Marques, Alexandre Ré and José Pimenta, at a good distance. While the third-placed team, the Latvian team Tempo 24H, could aspire little more than the lowest place on the podium, due to the two laps delay for the leader.
However, the theater blow of a race that, this year, had the unexpected good weather and the traditional bad floor, two important aspects, would eventually start to appear not long after, with the primary shaft of Thierry Charbonnier's car giving way. and the MMP Evo 3 collecting in the pits, with no chance of returning to the track.
And if the news of the abandonment of the Franco-Portuguese team started to be a very sweet gift for the then first classified, who from then on began to believe almost wholeheartedly in winning the sixth title in Fronteira, the truth is that confidence was the sun of little lasts. Since, after half an hour, it would be the turn of the Nissan Proto from Andrade Competition to return to problems, even forcing its entry into the pits. In order, in fact, not to leave there any longer; at least, in time to enter the track before the 24 hours of the race, as required by regulation.
When the gift fell from the skies in Frontier
With the first two off the road, this after the Caze Tomahawk by JC Brochard (looked like a hare in the first few laps!), the AC Nissan Proto, the Chevrolet by Sebastien Vincendau and the Sadev Orix by Stéphane Barbry had already taken the lead. – great emotion! -, that's how, surprisingly, Igor Skoks, Rudolfs Skoks and Arvis Pikis, at the wheel of a Mitsubushi Pajero from Tempo 24H, saw the lead and, shortly afterwards, the victory literally fell into his lap!
Not even allowing the most categorized rookie of this 20th edition of the 24 Horas TT Vila de Fronteira, the Mini All4 Racing of the official BMW team, the X-Raid, for the first time in the Alentejo race and with the driving given to the Italians Michele de Nora, Michelle and Carlo Cinotto, and Paolo Bachella, even dreaming of trying to get into the fight for first place – not least because, among the Italian-German team, there was not only a broken gearbox that led them to lose 40 minutes in the game. in exchange, as a Sadev Orix, piloted by Barbry, Pierre and Louis Lauilhe, who was also not about to relinquish third place.
the statements
“We know this competition well. I've participated seven times and the team has done it thirteen times. We did an excellent job beforehand and the tactic worked. We had already taken second and third places, but to win is to win! It was an incredible race”, said, at the end of the race, Rudolfs Skoks who, at 24 years old, is the youngest member of Tempo 24H. Recognizing, however, that “with an hour to go I didn't believe it was possible to win! Our car was always at 100 percent. We didn't have any mechanical problems and the victory is fair, despite our opponent's bad luck”.The biggest unlucky one, the Andrade Competition team, had on the face of one of its riders, Mário Andrade, the image of disappointment. Which did not fail to point out, in exclusive statements to Razão Automóvel, that “especially during the night, it was a real battle, due to the problems we faced in the car. We had to change the electric steering assistance three times, which makes the way it all turned out even more inglorious. However, next year, we will be here, once again to try to win!”.
The Portuguese
In a 24 Horas TT Vila de Fronteira dominated, once again, by the Portuguese-French teams, or if the Welsh were not one of the few countries that have in their off-road calendar an event like the one in Fronteira, the 24 Horas de Paris, the best exclusively Portuguese team ended up being that of Victor Conceição, Nuno Pires and Tiago Rodrigues, at the wheel of a Nissan Navara. Although and contrary to what happened in the last 12 years, editions in which there were always Portuguese teams on the podium, having not gone beyond fifth place in the general classification, right behind André Bastet's Propultion Springbook.
For the rest, and in a race that, despite the fantastic participation – in terms of riders, but also in terms of audience! – , it is not, in reality, part of either the National Off-Road Championship or the World Championship of the modality, nor was it this time that the national champion of off-road title, managed to join the title, the victory at Frontier. With Ricardo However, the already two-time Portuguese champion, not getting better than a 10th place, at the wheel of the MMP Rally Raid that he shared with another national champion, Pedro Grancha, and with Laurent Poletti and Ronald Basso. This time, blamed on the turbo problems, which ruined any aspirations, despite the application of an entire team that managed to change drivers in 10 seconds and change a radiator in something like 4 minutes!
On the contrary, better luck for Portuguese drivers, in the T2 category, with Carlos Faustino, Hélder Cordeiro, Rui Pinho, Pedro Lopes and Jorge Caetano taking the Nissan Pathfinder to victory among these cars, and to 13th place overall. Also taking advantage of the bad luck of Rómulo Branco, who, in Nissan Navara, ended up being hopelessly late, by breaking the suspension triangles twice.
Total Mazda Challenge
As expected, the duo Pedro Dias da Silva/José Janela ended up confirming their first victory in the Mazda Total Challenge, taking the Mazda CX-5 Proto from PRKSport Rally Team to the checkered flag, in 47th place overall. Finishing ahead of the formations of Pedro Cachola and Pedro Salgueiro, respectively, 48th and 49th placed overall.
Moreover, about this difference in terms of overall classification, Pedro Dias da Silva recalled that “the CX-5 were not made, unlike the vast majority of cars that drive here, for this type of race. They are very heavy. By the way, this, along with the costs of a race like this, are some of the reasons why I was one of the defenders that the Challenge should not have the 24 Hours, but the National Championship as a whole”.