Shepherd Wins Coupe de France

Last weekend saw the Coupe de France race take place for 1:8 on-road at the LMRC track in Limoges, France. In total the race saw 136 drivers attend, which was the biggest entry in ten years. Amng the drivers were Stéphane Bouche and recently crowned French National Champion Richard Volta, racing for the French Shepherd team.
On Friday and Saturday the weather was fine, but on Sunday dark clouds covered the sky. Richard Volta was in good shape and secured pole position with Stéphane Bouche down in tenth position after qualifying. For this race there were no direct finalists and just five minutes before the start of the semi-finals, the rain arrived so the conditions were really difficult for all the drivers. Bouche and Volta both managed to bump up to the final after a safe 20 minutes drive. At the start of the 30 minutes long final Bouche had a tough battle for the lead with Sebastien Zalta who revels in these conditions. After ten minutes, Bouche took over the lead an increased it lap by lap. At the end of the final, it was Stéphane Bouche with his Novarossi-powered Shepherd Velox V8 who took the victory a lap in front of Sebastien Zatla with brother Laurent Zalta finishing another lap down.
After the race, Stéphane had the following to say: “I’m really happy to win this big race after finishing three times in second place before, and after a difficult and unlucky season. The reaction of all the people around me is really incredible and I enjoy this moment. So many thanks to Shepherd, Racing Experience and my mechanics for their support this year.”

 

Result

1 St̩phane Bouche РVelox V8
2 Sébastien Zatla   
3 Laurent Zatla 
4 Jacky Mounton   
5 Stéphane Riccobono
6 Fraioli Gaetano
7 Damien Thirion
8 Christophe Louis
9 Richard Volta (TQ) – Velox V8
10 Jeremy Cassagne

Source: Shepherd Racing