1979: second year with Fiat France
For 1979, Michèle Mouton again had the Fiat 131 Abarth at her disposal with full support from Fiat France. The main target was the French rally championship.
Rally Monte Carlo, firts rally of the year.
The year traditionally started with the Rally Monte Carlo, still the top of rally driving. Starting places were again Rome, Paris, Warsaw or even London in order to regroup in Val-les-Bains, the starting point for an etappe with special chrono-stages. Fiat and Ford were the favourites. The Italian factory entered two 131 Abarths for Markku Alen and Walter Röhrl, in addition to two the 131 from Fiat France with Jean-Claude Andruet and Michèle Mouton. Ford was officially deploying two Escort RS1800s for Bjorn Waldegard and Hannu Mikkola. No official Lancia Stratos at the start, but again the blue Stratos of Lancia France importer Alain Chardonnet for Bernard Darniche, European and French champion. Porsche was now an outsider with the Carrera Group 4 of Jean-Pierre Nicolas and Jacques Alméras.
The first classification route, which ran from Val-les-Bains via Sisteron to Monaco, turned in the Fords' favour. Mikkola and Waldegaard got more than a minute's lead over the Fiat factory drivers. Over the next two days the rally went from Monaco to Digne and then to Gap and back to Monaco. The conditions on the course were difficult, alternating between dry, snowy and icy sections. Ford remained well in front, followed by Andruet and Röhrl with Darniche fifth. Things were a bit more difficult for Michèle. The French Fiats lacked some power and the conditions were not favourable to really go all out. She was behind the favourites in the standings. In the last stage around Monaco there was less snow and ice, but the surface remained variable. At the front, Darniche gave everything to overtake Waldegaard's Ford and Röhrl's Fiat. The last chrono stages would be completed at night. Darniche continued to go fast and overtook Röhrl in the general classification. With two stages to go he was still more than 1'30 behind Waldegaard. In the penultimate special in Villars-sur-Var everything changed; Darniche took 1'16 from the Swede in one go, but then the Ford was slowed down! Chauvinistic French supporters had placed two large stones in the middle of the road. Waldegaard lost about thirty seconds to get out of the obstacle and only had a 15 second lead at the start of the last stage, the climb of the Col du Turini. Due to a wrong tire choice, he finished second, 6 seconds behind Darniche. Michèle ended the rally in seventh place, more than 34 minutes behind the winner.
French rallychampionship is the target. A great win in the Lyon-Charbonnieres rally.
At the end of February the Fiat team did the Ronde de la Giraglia around Ajjacio and Bastia in Corsica. The weather conditions were bad and when the rally was supposed to start on Saturday there even was snow. The organization were forced to cancel the first chrono sections so that the Coti-Chiavari stage was the actual start. The snow was gone, but it rained intens. For Fiat France, the rally stopped after this first stage. While passing through a village, Mouton's Fiat flew a little too high over a bump in the road and crashed into a wall, while Andruet had to stop a few kilometres further due to a problem with the electronic ignition.
And then the Rally Lyon-Charbonnières! The women's team in the white-red Fiat number 2 won this one with a three-minute lead over Bernard Beguin's Porsche and more than nine minutes ahead of Jean-Louis Clarr's Opel. In the rain they were often faster than powerful Porsches.
More rain three weeks later in the Critérium de Touraine. Exactly the opposite happened here. Michele slided off the road in the first chrono stage. Fourteen days later the weather was finally good for the Jean Behra rally. The trajectory was a little more favourable for the Fiat. Teammate Andruet had mechanical trouble in the seventh chrono stage and Beguin had an accident. That's why it became a battle between Vincent's Porsche and Mouton's Fiat. Michèle won the seventh fast section and settled into second place. Another victory followed in the eleventh stage, but the Porsche was then already out of reach. But another top performance. At the end of April she was again second in the Ronde d'Armor behind Beguin's Porsche.
All favourites from the French championship would start in the Criterium Alpin (see photos below) a week later. Successively, her teammate Andruet was left behind by a flat tire and Vincent by a blocked throttle cable. Then Serpaggi (Lancia Stratos) got gearbox problems. Michèle Mouton was flying. Place three on the first fast section, place 2 on sections two and four. After a third place in stages five and six and Beguin's retirement, the French Fiat took the lead in the rally. Unfortunately, she made a mistake in the following chrono stages, causing her to drop to fifth place. She recovered, but in the fourteenth stage the engine stopped working. Rally over and no points.
Lorraine Rally two weeks later was a fast rally. You needed a lot of horsepower and that was exactly the problem. Fiat France therefore gave Jean Claude Andruet the lighter weighted Fiat. That was a good choice, because he immediately took the lead in the rally. Unfortunately, the Porsches were still faster. Yet Andruet managed to finish second and Michèle third. At the end of May, Andruet took a revenge on Beguin's Porsche in the Ronde Cevenole. He won by 2 minutes and Michèle was again third. A week later, Mouton was the Fiat driver to participate in the Rallye International du Forez in the Loire region. Unfortunately, her engine broke down.
Things were better again in the Rally d'Antibes. The Mouton-Conconi team started very well with two third places in the first three chrono stages and was 1th the standings. Unfortunately, they received an eleven-minute time penalty after the fourth stage and dropped to ninth place. Michèle gave a little more gas, took a little more risk and ended up among the fastest three drivers on four occasions in the next five chrono stages. She then won three stages and moved up to third place. After being the fastest twice more, she ended the rally second.
After the summer break.
After the summer break, the next rally was the Tour de France in mid-September a four-day rally with 41 special stages. Besides the two Fiat 131s of Jean-Claude Andruet-Chantal Liénard and Michèle Mouton-Françoise Conconi, the other top cars were Bernard Béguin (Porsche) and Bernard Darniche (Lancia Stratos Chardonnet). What was predictable happened. The Porsche and the Lancia won all timed stages with Andruet just behind them. His efforts were not rewarded, as the gap between the two leaders continued to increase during the race. When Beguin had to abandon, the final result was Darniche winning, Andruet second, Michèle third, just ahead of Jean-Louis Clarr (winner in group 1/ Kadett GTE).
The Criterium de la Châtaigne followed a month later. Here Bernard Beguin was again the fastest. Michèle only had to give in three minutes and finished second. At the beginning of November Tour de Corse again. Although Lancia no longer officially participated, there were two privately registered Lancia Stratos at the start. One was the Chardonnet car for favourite Bernard Darniche and the other was for Francis Serpaggi. They had to compete against fifteen Porsche 911s, two Renault 5 Alpines, a new Talbot Sunbeam Lotus for JP Nicolas and the usual Opel Kadett from Clarr. But the previous editions were won by a Fiat Abarth!
Andruet was eager to win here for a fourth time and started very fast in the first chrono stage of 101 km from Liamone to Suariccio. During this section, the car had electrical problems and he was only fourth fastest. In the second section, he got a blowout of the front tyre, the suspension broke down and he crashed into a wall. Rally over. Michèle also lost a few minutes due to a flat tyre, but also experienced fuel problems. A double puncture in the third stage between Aullène and Abbazia costed her seventeen penalty minutes and she lost all hope of a good result. She ended the first day, after 11 chrono stages, in ninth position. In the second stage, after Nicolas had to give up because he ran into a wild boar, Michèle went as fast as possible. She climbed up to fourth place in a few timed stages and she had third place in sight when she got another flat tyre. The final result was fifth place, more than an hour behind winner Darniche. It should be mentioned that only 14 cars managed to reach the finish line in Ajaccio.
Two more rallies for the French championship. Great line-up on November 17 and 18 during the Critérium des Cévennes. Among the 326 participants were JP. Jaussaud and Danny Snobeck both with a Porsche, JP Beltoise- Jean Todt with a BMW and JL. Schlesser (BMW) next to the usual names. 17 fast stages had to be completed in the Montpellier area. Michèle was fast and was always in the front in the first seven fast sections. Then she experienced some engine problems. She could only go fast again seven stages later. She won that one and ultimately ended third in the rally. The last of the year, Rally du Var, as still very important to her. Second place in the championship was not certain yet. If her direct opponent, Jean-Louis Clarr's Opel Kadett, had to retire, second in the final standings of the French championship was secured. Bernard Beguin was the champion.
