Automobile: Youth Rally operation, the final hour on the Lédenon circuit

Antoine Jarraud, Camille Choudin et Paul Couturier, les lauréats 2024 de l’opération Rallye Jeunes. FFSA

Deux jours durant, le circuit gardois de Lédenon a accueilli une nouvelle finale de l’opération de détection de nouveaux talents.

Created thirty years ago by Jacques Régis from Nîmes and former president of the FFSA, the Rallye Jeunes operation continues its glorious history. Seventeen times world champions between them, Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier began their careers thanks to it, as did, subsequently, Yohan Rossel, Adrien Fourmaux and many others.

The merits of this vast federal operation to detect new talents are no longer in doubt and its 2024 edition has just added new names to the long and distinguished list of winners.

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65 finalists on the Lédenon circuit

Following the seven regional selections, including that of Lédenon organized last weekend, sixty-five finalists met on Monday, December 9 on this same circuit for two days of final face-to-face with the stopwatch aboard Peugeot 208s.

Through a merciless sorting carried out at the pace of the successive runs, the apprentice drivers first found themselves at thirty at the end of the morning, then at eighteen, before the ten best were finally selected for the day on Tuesday.

Day 2 of the final then took the form of new timed passages, on asphalt and on dirt, then arrived, Tuesday at the end of the afternoon, the fateful hour of the proclamation of the names of the lucky ones chosen by the jury.

A 208 Racing made available to the three winners

Chosen as the respective winners of the women's, non-licensed and licensed categories, Camille Choudin (Isère, 24 years old), Antoine Jarraud (Saône-et-Loire, 21 years old) and Paul Couturier (Haute-Saône, 19 years old) will have, in 2025, the necessary means to confirm their talent in rallies aboard the 208 Racing made available to them. Perhaps the beginning of a long story for them…

Four Gardois in the final

Among the thousands of girls and boys who went through the selections, four Gardois had achieved the small feat of obtaining their finalist ticket. Tifenn Bonhomme, Clément Ferreira and Landry Yvens then failed to make it into the top thirty, unlike Loan Guibal, who came very close to being selected on the second day.

“It was my first experience at Rallye Jeunes, so qualifying for the final was already beyond what I expected, says the 19-year-old student from Le Vigan. On Monday, I was obviously under a lot of pressure, but I felt good and I narrowly missed finishing the day in the top 10 after hitting a cone. Honestly, for a first time, it's great to have gotten this far!”

Loan Guibal will certainly try his luck again next year, like the thousands of other young people who are dying to follow in the footsteps of the greats.