Historic Rally: Legend Boucles Bastogne 2022
By Marcel Hundscheid / Speed-O-Graphica
On the weekend of the 5th and 6th of March, 2022, the Legend Boucles Bastogne was held for the first time since 2019. Scroll along, and enjoy a little wrap-up of the action.
A rally for historic rally cars, Legend Boucles Bastogne is held around Bastogne in Walloon Belgium. When we dive back in history, we’ll find that the Boucles de Spa was one of the most important rallies held in Belgium with a longevity of more than half a century.
Until 1966 the event was known as Les Routes Blanches. From that year on, the organization was taken over by Alphonse Delettre who baptized the event in 1967 as Les Boucles de Spa. From 1976 until 2003 this rally traditionally took place in the area round Spa as it counted for the European Rally Championship. The last in-period edition of this event was held in 2004.
The first edition of the Legend Boucles de Spa took place in 2006 – a historic rally for competition cars called Legend but also a regularity test for ancestor cars called Classic. For each of the categories, the event took place in two rounds with a total of 300 cars.
The organizer decided to move the rally from Spa to the province of Luxemburg in Belgium, with the center of the event transferred to Bastogne. From that year a vast majority of the stages were held in the province of Luxemburg.
During this year’s edition, ten stages were scheduled on Saturday, and another six stages were run on Sunday all around the town of Bastogne. For lovers of classic rally cars such as the Ford Escort and the Porsche 911, it was pure enjoyment.
Overall winner of the rally and the Legend division was Frenchman Stéphane Lefebvre and his co-driver Xavier Portier, driving a Ford Escort RS1800 Mk.II. The pair were dominant from the first stage on Saturday until the last one on Sunday. Lefebvre was added to big names like Thierry Neuville, Brian Bouffier, Mikko Hirvonen and Kris Meeke, who won the populair Legend Boucles rally during earlier editions.
Results:
1) Stéphane Lefebvre-Xavier Portin / Ford Escort RS 1800 Mk.II
2) Christophe Daco-Jonathan Lemaire / Ford Escort RS 1800 Mk.II, + 9.20
3) Stefaan Stouf-Frank Werner / Ford Escort RS 1600 Mk.I, + 10.56
By Marcel Hundscheid / Speed-O-Graphica
