By Rob Styles – Rallyganda
The 49th edition of Rallye Bandama 2023 is around the corner, and it’s tick-tack to see the prestigious African rally championship 1st round happening in Yamoussoukro City of Cote D’Ivoire on 24-26th February.
It has proved in some years how important the Rallye Bandama points are, especially when a team decides to go for the full African rally championship calendar.
The leaving example is the 2014 champion Gary Chynes, who won at home in a tightly contested year beating Kenyan Jaspreet Chatteh to the championship.
The 2022 championship went down to the wire in Lusaka Zambia, it was a result of Leroy and Urshillah committing to Rallye Bandama where the crew scored 30 maximum points to secure the championship under their belt.
However, the 2023 championship looks different, due to the fact that the interested crews to battle for this year’s trophy, opted not to enter Bandama for various reasons, among them being logistical issues.
And this leaves the battle to the hands of local boys to gage among each other.
The most successful driver and winner of Rallye Bandama Gary Chaynes will lead the all-home boys’ battle driving Mitsubishi Evo X.
He will be hunted by Maxime Abondio driving a Mirage proto, not forgetting Frederic Nobou also driving a Ford Fiesta MK2 Proto as the rally favourites.
Among other drivers on the final entry list presented to FIA are; Bottari Cyril, Roinet Carolle, Malick Gueye, Backary Fane, and others. Below is a full entry list.
Full entry list of Rallye Bandama 2023
1. Gary/Comas Romain- Mitsubishi Evo 10 RC2/N4
2. Bottari Cyril/Hyjazi Abdallah- Subaru Impreza RC2/N4
3. Roinet Carolle/Kouassi-Lenoir Yarène -Peugeot 207 RC3/A
4. Abondio Maxime/ Borges Hugo Miguel- Mitsubishi Mirage Proto CI-N4 P
5. Macquet Claude/ Attaiech Jean Jacques- Peugeot 206 CI-A3
6.Servant Patrice/ Servant Paul-Toyota Corolla AE 86 VHC
7. Gueye Malick/ Kiendrebeogo Nicolas- Mitsubishi Evo 7 CI-N3
8. Nobou Frédéric/ Coulibaly Daniel Dykto – Ford Fiesta Proto EVO 10 CI-N4 P
9. Pansolin Thierry/ Pansolin Nicolas- Toyota Corolla AE 86 VHC
10. Fane Bakary/ Fane Fatimata- Mitsubishi EVO 9 CI-N3
11. Malherbe Loïc/ Brion Thierry- Subaru Sti Impreza CI-N4
12. Kouassi-Lenoir Roland/ Kouassi-Lenoir N. Ange Andre- Ford Focus IICI-A3
14. Kanate Hamed/ Doahi Potey- Peugeot 206 CI-A2
15. Cordel Bruno/ Roy Nicolas- Peugeot 205 CI-A2
16. Ouattara Daouda Ouattara Daouda/ Ibittowa Djamali- Peugeot 306 CI-A2
17. Fofana Ibrahima/ Fofana Mohamed- Peugeot 206 CI-A2
18. Traore Amara/ Ouattara Adama- Volkswagen Golf 4 CI-A3
19. Fane Salif/ Fane Moussa- Subaru GT CI-N3
20. Sidibe Amara/ Sidibe Yssouf- Dacia Logan CI-A2
21. Sanogo B. Ahmed/ Diakite Any- Citroen Xsara CI-A2
22. K. Sidoine/ Diakite Awa- Dacia Logan CI-A2
23. Diarassouba Mory/ Harouna Illyassou- Toyota Corolla CI-A2
24. Louis Charles Coulibaly Sié Louis Charles/ Kouame-hassane Yohan Karl- Dacia Logan CI-A2
