A Coup for Couprie!
By TMX Archives on 6th Feb 08
FRENCH Quad pilot, Romain Couprie, on a 450 Yamaha, demonstrated on Saturday that he is truly a master of sand, when he won the power and strength sapping three-hour Le Touquet Quaduro.
He was part of the second placed team with Jerome Fournier in 2003, won it with Pascal de Palma in 2004, came home second on his own in 2005 and was part of another winning team, with Blaise Parent on both 2006 and 2007.
With Parent signing to ride the new Can-Am, the pair split for this year and decided to do the event solo, yes that's three-hours only stopping for fuel and a drink and no rest at all.
The course for the Quad race was lengthened from 7.8 to 11.4 km this year to allow for more racers but even with the added track length, the extra machines still made it as bumpy as previous years.
Rain in the week had made the sand heavier than usual, though it didn't look it as a strong wind had blown the top layer dry and was tossing it into the faces of the larger then usual crowd.
This year, the riders rode through the town – just like the solos do – and formed up in ranks of 50, by numbers, to set off down the start straight, staggered at 20 second intervals.
This meant that Britain's best hope for success, Paul Winrow on his Honda, would leave in the first band, while British and European champion, John Mitchell on his ATV World Yamaha would have to leave in the fourth.
Winrow said before the start: "I just have to get a good start and see where we are at the end of an hour and take it from there!”
While a philosophical Mitchell said: "There was a mix up with my entry and I am lucky that I could get this number as if I hadn't, I would have been way at the back . Mind you its going to be hard work making up for the time I will be delayed at the start with all the fast boys in the front row!''
That first row shot down the beach at the 1 o'clock start with Winrow crouching down so far on his Honda he was changing gears with his left-hand.
As the leaders came back into view at the end of the first lap, it was Jeremie Warnia (Suzuki) in the lead with Couprie second and Jose Gomes third with Winrow in his wheel tracks. Meanwhile, Mitchell was powering his way smoothly through the field and was taking no prisoners.
As the first hour ticked over, Romain was in the lead by almost a minute from Warnia, who in turn was over 90 seconds ahead of Parent's Can-Am and Cyril Debouck's Kawasaki.
LE TOUQUET QUADURO
Le Touquet, FRANCE
Top 20 – 13 laps: 1 Romain Couprie (F - Yamaha), 2 Blaise Parent (F - Can-Am), 3 Matthieu Ternymck/ Clement Jay (F/F - Yamaha), 4 Jeremie Warnia (F - Suzuki), 5 Cyril Debouck/ Julien Hartout (F/F - Kawasaki).
12 laps: 6 John Mitchell (UK - ATV World Yamaha), 7 Cyril Lamet/ Borges Anth Sausa (F/F - Honda), 8 Mathieu Bonnard/ Yoann Ciclet (F/F - Suzuki), 9 Eric Gaillard/ Vincent Raimondi (F/F - Suzuki), 10 Pascal Rochereau/ Vincent Thiollier (F/F - Yamaha), 11 Jerome Bricheux/ Vincent Vassel (F/F - Yamaha), 12 Joot Hofmans/ Jan Vlaeymans (NL/B - WTEC), 13 Arnaud Humbert/ Sebastien Afflard (F/F - Yamaha), 14 Remi Lamaire/ Laurent Solinski (F/F - WTEC), 15 Patrick David/ Eddy Deus (F/F - Yamaha), 16 Frederic Louit/ Thibault Barth (F/F - KTM), 17 Benoit Liefooghe/ Antoine Liefooghe (F/F - Yamaha), 18 Keveen Rochereau/ David Perrigo (F/F - Kawasaki), 19 Mikael Vinchon/ Clement Druet (F/F - Yamaha), 20 Jean Baptiste Berteloot/ Robin Jomier (F/F - Yamaha).
Other British Finishers: 32 Caine Hinder (Honda) 11 laps,... 78 Chris Murphy/ Clint Eagle (Honda),... 83 Ian Neill/ Andy Britton (Honda) , 95 Ben Morgan (Honda) 10 laps,... 171 Peter Gallagher (Honda),... 196 Alan Bromiley (Kawasaki),... 211 Allan Sexton/ Warren Slevin (Honda) 9 laps.
For full report and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, February 8, 2008