Pierre Ragues, renowned for his championship-winning expertise in endurance racing, will take to the wheel of a Skoda Fabia S2000 for the 44th Rallye de la Côte Fleurie next week in a true home and family event. 

 

The French racer, who won the European Le Mans Series title with Signatech-Alpine in 2013, will follow in the footsteps of many drivers who have transferred their passion of circuit driving into rallying. 

 

Pierre’s co-driver for this event, which forms part of the Coupe de France des Rallyes, will be his father Marcel Ragues, who used to rally a lot when he was younger. As an added enjoyment factor for the duo, the rally will be run in their home region, making the event especially poignant.

 

There are four different stages for the event run over ten special stages in total, including a Super Special Stage on the evening of Friday 21 February, which will be held on Lais de Mer at the famous Deauville. 

 

There are a total of 120km of stages over two days with Friday’s 4.7km special stage followed on Saturday by nine further stages. Parc fermé for the rally will be in front of the Casino at Trouville sur Mer. 

 

Pierre and Marcel have teamed up previously for the Tour de France Auto Classic, an event they have taken part in twice before, while Pierre himself drove a Nissan GTR as zero car last year. 

 

Pierre said: “I am really excited to be taking part in this fantastic event with my father alongside me. It is a special rally for us because it takes part in our home region so we have a special attachment to it. To have the chance to compete in a Skoda Fabia S2000 is great. This will be my first rally with ‘real numbers’ after I took part with a zero car last year, although me and my father are quite used to competing together. We have taken part twice in the classic Tour de France Auto Classic and my father also did a lot of rallying when he was younger. There are ten stages in total including the super special stage on the Friday evening which runs on Lais de Mer at Deauville and the parc fermé which will be in front of the Casino de Trouville. It promises to be a great spectacle and I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun. It will be good to get the competitive spirit flowing for this first event of 2014.”