On Sunday, 14 July 1996 the FIA Rallycross Inter-Nations Cup was held at the Circuit de Ducs, a part-asphalt-part-dirt circuit located in Essay, a small town located some ten kilometers North-East of Alençon, department of Orne, northern France. The event was a competition for national rallycross teams instead of individual drivers, and was surrounded by much expectation following the success of the previous 1995 edition.
The Cup was segmented in heats of eight cars, and as soon as the first races started spectators located at the higher sections of the track began complaining about the dust thrown up by the vehicles. The protests grew large and noisy, and the organizers decided to water that section of the track before each start.
The watering truck re-entered the track to humidify it again, but this second time the volume of water was considerably larger; building up on the water already spread, it is possible that the water truck driver overdid the operation. In the meantime, the competitors waiting for the start were not aware of the altered, slippery conditions of the track, and did not change their slick tyres to more suitable compounds.
When the start of the next heat was given, Belgian driver Jos Sterkens took the head, followed by Frenchman Philippe Chanoine in a Renault Mégane T16 4x4 and then Dermot Carnegie, Pavel Nováček, Erich Geiselhofer, Jaap van Tol, Bruno Hansen and Miguel Moura. After completing the first and second turns, Sterkens went through the paved chicane that precedes the dirt section and found this latter in very muddy and slippery conditions. Sterkens hit the brakes to slow down his Ford Mondeo T16 4x4, but slid to the left of the track at high speed and rolled it halfway up the five meter-high embankment that surrounds the track at that point. Chanoine, who was trying to overtake Sterkens, completely lost the control of his Renault; the car climbed the bank, went straight through a wall of bushes at its top and mowed down some forty spectators located behind it. Another car followed the same path, and then both machines fell back onto the circuit. In the meantime all the other cars crashed upon each other at the bottom of the bank, in a sickening pile-up.
After an accident of such proportions, a general rescue plan was put in action by the local authorities, mobilizing various hospitals; the event was immediately stopped. Four spectators died shortly after the accident and another one perished from injuries the following day; seven others were seriously wounded, and fifteen received minor injuries.
The victims who died that same day were Maryline Loupy, Françoise Guittard, Jacky Touzot, Guy Richard. The one who succumbed to his injuries on Monday, 15 July 1996 was Bruno Thoreton.
R.I.P
