C’est tres Extrem!
UK drivers make the long trip to the French Alps to take on the locals in one of Europe’s toughest off-road events. How will the Land Rovers fare?
Tough off-road action in France
“A priest blesses the crews and prays for a safe event”
Tucked away in the mountains of the Hautes-Alpes in south-east France is the pretty village of Montmorin. It’s normally a peaceful place, where contented cows graze in the gentle fields spreading along the bottom of the valley. But it’s rural tranquility is about to be shattered.
This year it’s the destination for the 10th X-Trem Ironman Challenge France. It’s a nine-hour drive from Calais, via St Quentin, but that doesn’t deter entrants from the UK, including Team Gigglepin – who will turn up anywhere in Europe if the offroading is tough enough.
It’s a bright moonlight night as the assembled crews head into well-marked forests on a punch hunt until about 02.00am, giving them a few hours of sleep before the 10.00am line-up on the Friday morning. Outside the event HQ at La Rabasse, Aventure Girousse organisers, Jean François Larpin and Gilles Girousse, address the teams before allocating marshals.
They explain there will be three zones – named Fifi, Phil and Sector 3 – which offer a selection of yellow (moderately tough), red (tough) and black (very challenging) sections.
Discussions over, I notice a priest waiting patiently to one side. He’s here to give a blessing to all the crews and prays for a safe event.
Teams peel off to begin their points quest among wastelands of mud, lurching side slopes, rock crawls, tree-lined tracks, waterfalls, huge rocks and cliffs with traverses through unforgiving, thorn-riddled streams. There’s a one-hour compulsory stop each day to give the co-drivers a rest, but the teams decide when this is to be taken. Friday night and the French are in the lead, with a following pack of Land Rovers close behind, including Team Gigglepin in 7th place after a couple of technical hitches.
There’s a stellar moment on Saturday morning when all the cars line up behind a deep ditch, cut into a sloping field, in front of hundreds of spectators. On the start signal from organiser Gilles Girousse, the cars immediately plunge into the ditch and try to get up and out the opposite slope any way they can. There are desperate shouts in several languages for bridging
“Jim and Helder drive their Chevy-engined Defender like they stole it”
ladders and ground anchors as the winch cables smoke out, but eventually all make it to higher ground.
To truely understand Land Rovers is to see them in action, whether it’s the 525bhp Gigglepin Defenderstyle racer, or Laurent Crisci’s tricked-up Defender Td5. Paul Church from team Fat Kat, driving a Range Rover special, is part of a cheerful Land Rover 'Brits on Tour' expedition to the lonely tracks of the Gorge du Verdon, who just couldn’t resist making a detour to take part.
The Ironman Challenge France has a uniquely spectacular finale among top European events, where competitors drive through one of two deep-water bathing pools in front of a hillside heaving with spectators. It’s action all the way, from the moment the first Defender appeared, driven by Laurent Crisci, to the rolling thunder that is Jim Marsden’s Chevypowered Team Gigglepin Defender.
Driving like they stole it, Jim Marsden and his Portuguese co-driver Helder Rocher had to claw their way up the table on Saturday to acheive second overall by late Sunday afternoon. All that remains is one section: the bathing pool, laced with mud, fronds, twigs and whatever nature has allowed to expire in it. To have a chance of winning, they have to face its dark depths in both directions for a full 500 points.
Paul Church, who raced with Jim many years ago, takes over the co-driver’s seat from Helder. The car doesn’t miss a beat, and the smiles as they head for the exit ramp say it all.
Suffice to say, the X-Trem Ironman Warriors Challenge is one of the best off-road events in Europe.