Andros Trophy: Dayraut outpaces Muller

For the first round in 2000, the Andros Trophy has returned to the new Xonrupt Longemer track, in the Vosges region of France.

Yvan Muller and Dayraut were in the same group of four, and were within a tenth of a second of each other for the first two laps.

However, on the third lap, Dayraut set a perfect lap, with a time of 42.518 seconds, nearly
half a second faster than Muller's best.

Jean-Pierre Malcher, the leading driver in the Nissan team, was third fastest, with three consistent 43-second laps.

Marcel Tarrès, whose Citroen Xsara is now sporting some aerodynamic add-ons, improved constantly over his three laps, taking fourth place ahead of Opel's Eric Helary.

Pierre Colard was the fastest of the non-factory drivers, with sixth place in his 2-litre Peugeot 306.

Jean-Noel Lanctuit, driving a Nissan Micra, was fastest in the Promotion category, three-tenths of a second faster than Bernard Vincendeau's Renault Megane.

Fifth in promotion was GT driver Emmanuel Clerico, who has replaced Anne-Chantal Pauwels in the #39 Renault Clio for this round.

Clerico, a Promotion category event winner in 1998, looks likely to challenge this year's contenders.

Philippe Gache was hoping to start the new year with a more powerful engine for his Peugeot 306, but was forced to pull out when his new engine broke during testing.

Results from timed practice: