There were only 3 entrants in the new for 2015 R-GT class and all were essentially the same car (Porsche 911 GT3s). With the cheers from the crowds you would have thought the battle was much closer than it turned out to be. That was no matter as these glorious beasts with their musical turbo flat 6 engines reverberated through the canyons and echoed off the mountains filled everyone with joy. It seems everyone agrees that the new R-GT class is one of the great highlights of the 2015 Rallye Monte-Carlo.
Unsurprisingly the experienced Francois Delecour drove his Tuthill Porsche to an early lead in the R-GT Cup and never looked back. Class competitor Romain Dumas stayed within 3 minutes of Delecour, but could never catch him while Marc Duez struggled on the treacherous mountain roads finishing 13 minutes behind Dumas. Even though it wasn’t a close fight, sadly the daily WRC TV Highlights program hardly mentioned this new R-GT addition to the championship. As you can see in the fan video below these rear-wheel-drive cars are not the fastest in the kinds of conditions Monte-Carlo throws at drivers, however they are still spectacular to watch and especially awesome to listen to. And that was the point of the creation of the class to begin with. The FIA wants more excitement and diversity in the types of rally cars entered. Turn up the volume and I’m sure you’ll agree that the sound alone should be enough for R-GT to get at least some TV time, don’t you think? I’m hoping the next R-GT Cup event gives these drivers and cars some official coverage, but until then I’ll be scouring YouTube for great videos from fans on the stages like this one.
[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/3HZ2eKj9N1Y”]