GstaadLife

Way back when we began this website, GL.com would spend quite a lot of time reporting the exploits of the Gstaad Automobile Club. There were two Transafricaine rallies from Paris to Dakar, another trans-asian one for charity from St Petersburg to Beijing, a day of classic endurance racing at the Nürburgring, a day of classic formula one in Monaco, a couple of local rallies in collaboration with the Gstaad Yacht Club, a couple of winter driving courses, and more than a few fun cocktail evenings. During this time GAC has evolved, not so much in member numbers -- the club remains strictly invitation-only -- but more in terms of its place on the local car scene, with December 2007 seeing the opening of a new clubhouse in Feutersoey. This summer there has been another big step for GAC with the formalization of its modern endurance racing team. Sure there were always a few club members such as Stanislas de Sadeleer and Karim Ojjeh (pictured center above) who were regulars on the grand European circuits, racing everything from classic Formula 1 to the modern prototype endurance racing of the Le Mans Series (pictured below).

But this year the prototypers got serious...with a brand new car and team setup, the addition of professional driver Phillip Peter (pictured left above), results that see them doing fantastically in the standings for a rookie team, and a shiny new website to keep up with the all the action.

The site is great, chock full of background info, race stats, exclusive photos and video, and, our personal favorite, the journal-style cockpit accounts of the races like this one from Karim Ojjeh. The Gstaad Auto Club endurance team's next race is the big one, the 24 Heures du Mans from June 13-14, and you can follow all the action on Eurosport, MotorsTV and of course at www.gac-racingteam.com.

Top: From left to right, Phillip Peter, Karim Ojjeh, and Claude-Yves Gosselin contemplate a day's racing at this year's LM P2 season-opener in Barcelona.

2nd and 3rd from top: the GAC team's Zytek 07S car, unveiled to the public at a cocktail in Feutersoey just before Christmas 2008.

Known as the local Land Rover man, Hansueli Brand races cars, has traveled the world, and holds grass ski-racing titles. An adventurer, a philanthropist, and a local businessman, Brand philosophizes on life, family, traditions, work and how he sees his homeland changing.

By Diana Oehrli

Not knowing anything about the world of car racing—or even cars for that matter—we asked Hansueli Brand, 48, the most naive of questions: “Have you done any Formula One racing?” A laugh creased across his face as he replied: “No not Formula One, that’s my handicap. I’m too big and too fat. You have to be under 60 kilos and measure no more than a meter 60.”

Fat would probably be the last word to describe Brand, who is tall, fit and tan. With a certain ease and joviality, Brand, gave us a tour of the Gstaad Automobile Club house in Feutersoey. President and co-founder of the by-invitation-only society of car hobbyists, Brand pointed to the member trophy windows, containing classical car racing plaques which he and club members have won over the years. Names such as the Tour Auto Lissac that Brand won in 2005 with Alex de Lesseps figure alongside the Transafricaine and Paris-Dakar rallies. Most recently, this past June Brand and his partner, Stanislas de Sadeleer, won third place in the regularity category in the Transorientale Rally, a 10,000 km-race starting in St Petersburg Russia and ending in Beijing China (click here for day-by-day race coverage).

It’s finally over. Team Gstaad Automobile Club has successfully completed the 2nd Transafricaine Classic Rally from Paris to Dakar. And not only did they finish, but they came in a remarkable 9th place in the overall standings. Everyone here at GstaadLife.com congratulates Stanislas de Sadeleer and Vincent Janssens on this remarkable achievement. In a conversation with GstaadLife.com shortly after what de Sadeleer described one of the best baths of his whole life, there was palpable relief in his voice has he reflected of what he called one of the greatest sporting challenges he had ever undertaken.

Thu. 15.11.2007 17:14. This Paris-Dakar thing is no five-star experience.

When asked what made this achievement different from last years’ 11th place finish, he said emphasized the fact that the route to Dakar was much more challenging this year, and scoring well was that much harder because of the presence of so many semi-professional teams with support crews and auxiliary vehicles. Indeed every single one of the eight teams that finished ahead of Team Gstaad was racing with a support crew. Interestingly Team Gstaad was also the highest ranked vehicle with a petrol as opposed to diesel engine.

Sun. 11.11.2007 18:00. Janssens fills the Land Rover with gas. Team Gstaad's Land Rover was the highest ranked petrol-powered car in the race.

The last couple days racing saw a near disaster in racing terms when de Sadeleer and Janssens were penalized 450 points for missing a way point, an error which ended up costing them two places in the overall standings. But ultimately after listening to the stories of the past two weeks, we here at GstaadLife.com can point to two secrets of success. The first is the improved physical fitness of de Sadeleer, who trained hard for this year’s race and who was thus had the stamina to do all the driving, leaving Janssens to concentrate in his areas of specialty, namely navigation and mechanics. Not that he had much to do in the latter department, because the second secret to Team Gstaad’s success was most certainly the impeccable running of their 1994 Land Rover Discovery Series 1, which asides from a couple of very minor hitches a couple of days before the end saw absolutely no problems whatsoever. Really, not even a tire change. One only need look at the photos of the camps every night to see iridescence of the floodlights glowing in the desert night as they shone upon engine parts strewn across the sand as team after team repaired and rebuilt their cars after each day’s rallying. Not so Team Gstaad as all the heavy lifting had already been done by Hansueli Brand and the team from Ledi Garage in Feutersoey, and the fine running of the car was evidently a by-product of Brand’s experience with de Sadeleer in the 2006 edition of this race.

So it’s back to the real world for our intrepid duo, with de Sadeleer (see photo left, just after the conclusion of his African adventure) flying back to Europe on Sunday with the car following him by boat from Senegal. When asked if he would do it all again next year, the answer from de Sadeleer was unequivocal…"no way”.

Just remember Stan, that’s exactly what you told us last year! Congratulations again to you and Vincent.

• Click here to view and buy official race photos of de Sadeleer and Janssens
• For the final rankings, click here

Mauritania. A land of contrasts, beautiful to look at, tough to drive. And even tougher to negotiate a border-crossing permit. As with last year (see Team Gstaad detained by Mauritanian army), the Transafricaine Classic Rally from Paris to Dakar was best by a few administrative hassles when the Polisario rebels who control Western Sahara refused to let the racers pass through a narrow strip of (useless desert) land that they control. This meant that the teams were forced into a 600 km detour around the disputed territory which took them for a sight-seeing drive along western Africa's equivalent of the Pacific Coast Highway. This it turns out was the last place the Transafricans were able to get any kind of signal on their Nokia N95 mobile blogging unit, so the photo above is the last record we have of Team Gstaad before they headed into the unknowns of Mauritania. Not to worry though, because word is coming through that the Gstaad Transafricans have been slowly but surely making their way up the rankings, navigating sand dunes and rocky passes to rank as high as 7th place in the overall standings by last night. In conversations by satellite phone with GstaadLife.com, Stanislas de Sadeleer reported that the Mauritanian stages have separated the men from the boys, with numerous cars falling well short of the mark in the timed sectons, and large number of accidents (mostly rollovers), and a lot of mechnical problems.

Not so fortunately for Team Gstaad's trusty 1994 Land Rover Discovery Series I which has performed almost impeccably throughout. Ok, there was a minor problem on Monday with the fuel filter, but this was solved by 3-hour haggle with some locals over their perceived need to charge 200 euros for a part that normally sells for 20 euros! de Sadeleer also reported that mechnical issues are starting to effect teams in the top 10, which is significant for two reasons: firstly if de Sadeleer and Janssens just maintain their current progress, they could end up in the top 5 on the basis of retirements of cars currently ahead of them. Secondly all of the cars ahead of them have their own support teams, and it should be noted that Team Gstaad is the leading team in the rally that does not have a support team -- meaning they must tote around an extra 200 kilos of supplies, equipment, and spare parts for the car...through deep sand.

So every night the drivers wait anxiously for word of how they did in the day's stage, and for Team Gstaad the news has so far been good. Check out the video below for a taste of the action from the toughest stages over the pure sand dunes to yesterday's climb up the infamous Nega Pass. It'll make getting your Range Rover up that snowy driveway seem like child's play...

As we follow the Gstaad Automobile Club in their trek across the Sahara desert we are now able to bring you the first images from the early African stages of the Transafricaine Paris-Dakar Classic Rally. The photos above are taken from Stanislas de Sadeleer's Nokia N95 Lifeblog photo unit, and they show a slice of both the scenary and kind of living he and Vincent Janssens have been experiencing over the past days. The other star of the show, of course, is their 1994 Land Rover Discovery I, which was expertly prepared by Hansueli Brand and the team at Ledi Garage in Feutersoey, and which so far has been running without a hitch. In conversations with GstaadLife.com, de Sadeleer expressed great satisfaction with how the race has gone so far, and there was genuine excitement in his voice as he described a highly successful day 8 when they placed 2nd after hundreds of kilometers of desert sands and stones. There were a few navigational issues in the dunes of central Morocco, and they did miss a couple of the required GPS waypoints (once by just 200 meters, but you try going back 200 meters in deep sand!), but it turns out that virtually every competitor did the same thing so these errors were eradicated from the overall standings, leaving Team Gstaad in 9th place overall. The only cloud for the participants was the news of the serious injuries to the drivers of car 119, with Bernard Duc and Stéphane Valéry airlifted to hospital in Agadir Morocco and then onto Marseilles France after rolling their Range Rover. We wish them both a speedy recovery.

Click on the screen below to watch video highlights of the stage 6 in the Sahara dunes from Erfoud to Tagounite, Morocco:

So we've got some catching up do here on GstaadLife.com as we attempt to follow Gstaad Auto Club racers Stanislas de Sadeleer and Vincent Janssens from Paris to Dakar in the 2nd Transafricaine Rally. The good news is we are now emerging from our data-deprived existence of the past few days. So first up some news and photos sent by de Sadeleer from the European sectors of the race so far.

From the muds of the French military proving grounds in central France (above), to the forests of Château de Montplaisir near Narbonne (see video below), to the ferry port in Almeria Spain, the Gstaad Transafricans were in good shape lying in 8th place (out of 56 in their class). In telephone conversations with GstaadLife.com, de Sadeleer reported that the European sections were relatively painless, with the car running extremely well, and the pair were relaxed and able to conserve energy for the challenges ahead in Africa. Indeed so much additional bandwidth did they have, that Janssens was even able to offer up his mechanical skills to repair the transmission of fellow Land Rover rallyers, Charles Bourbon Parme and Charles La Haye Jousselin in car 113. The Gstaad Auto Club's not just a social thing, you know.

We'll have more from the early African stages by tomorrow. In the meantime...

• Click below to watch video highlights of the second stage in Narbonne, France.

Thu. 01.11.2007 16:09

This past Thursday November 1, Stanislas de Sadeleer and Vincent Janssens of the Gstaad Automobile Club departed Paris on their way to Dakar in the second annual Transafricaine Classic Rally. Team Gstaad has gotten off to a smooth start (currently lying in 8th place overall). Which is more than we can say for Team GstaadLife, which has been having a few technical problems over the past couple of days (like all our machines went down and we lost a ton of data which we are in the process of restoring). This has prevented us from providing the up-to-the-minute coverage we had intended. But slowly we're resolving everything so check back again over the next day or so. Tonight the Transafricans are on a ferry from Almeria in Spain to Morocco which is where the real action will begin. In the meantime, here's a couple of photos we've managed to extract from the first day, sent to us via de Sadeleer's Nokia N95 Lifeblog.

Thu. 01.11.2007 16:30

By Hansueli Brand

From all of us here at Ledi Garage Feutersoey, we wish all the very best of luck to Stanislas de Sadeleer and Vincent Janssens for the 2nd Transafricaine Classic Rally from Paris to Dakar.

Stan, I'm feeling sad not to be sitting beside you in that car this year, but you can be assured I'll be following your every move right here on GstaadLife.com.

Best wishes... HB + Team

Above: Hansueli Brand (right) with Stanislas de Sadeleer (left) and the entire Ledi Land Rover team a few days prior to the start of last year's race.

Click Comments below to leave your own messages for the drivers (they will receive them by text message on the Nokia N95 Lifeblog unit that de Sadeleer will be using to send us images from the adventure).

Well, they didn't get enough last year. This week Stanislas de Sadeleer of the Gstaad Automobile Club, and his co-pilot Vincent Janssens, will be embarking on another epic voyage from Paris to Dakar in the second annual Transafricaine Classic Rally which begins on November 1 in France. The year's event promises to be even tougher than last year, with more than 120 competitors compared to last year's 70-odd. Of the new drivers, some are professionals who have raced the modern Paris-Dakar, so placing as well as last year's 11th is going to be tough. GstaadLife.com readers will remember last year's drama when de Sadeleer and Ledi Garage's Hansueli Brand were detained by the Mauritanian army along the disputed border with Morocco-annexed Western Sahara (see Team Gstaad detained by Mauritanian army). We hope for no such drama for this year's Gstaad team, who will be racing in the same 1994 Land Rover Discovery Series 1 as last year.

Here at GstaadLife.com we'll have regular coverage from the desert, with Team Gstaad carrying the very latest in mobile blogging technology from Nokia to deliver to us live photos and video from the sands of western Africa. To get a taste of what we're in for, click on the links below or watch the video. The official race website is here. And check back with us regularly over the next 18 days to follow their progress. GstaadLife.com wishes de Sadeleer and Janssens the best of luck and a safe run down to Senegal.

Above: Stanislas de Sadeleer (left) with co-pilot Vincent Janssens (right) making final checks on their 1994 Land Rover Discovery which was prepared for this year's rally by Hansueli Brand (center) and the team at Ledi Garage in Feutersoey.

Team Gstaad Automobile Club is sponsored in part by ING Private Banking.

Full coverage from Transafricaine Classic Rally 2006 [DE = auch auf Deutsch] :

• Discipline leads to superb finish in Senegal for Gstaad Transafricans [DE]
• Transafricans close in on Dakar [DE]
• Village parties in Mali as Transafricans navigate desert brushlands [DE]
• Team Gstaad rises to Nega Pass challenge [DE]
• Relief for Team Gstaad as rallying resumes [DE]
• Green light for Transafrican Rally! [DE]
• Transafricans out of Mauritania but rally now in doubt [DE]
• Team Gstaad detained by Mauritanian army [DE]
• Military tensions force cancellation of Transafricaine Rally stage [DE]
• Transafricans damage Land Rover in rough terrain [DE]
• Dust, dust and more dust for Gstaad Transafricans [DE]
• A wild day in the Saharan dunes for Team Gstaad [DE]
• Tranafricans come in 5th in first African stage [DE]
• Team GAC makes landfall in Africa [DE]
• Smooth sailing into Spain [DE]
• Transafricans arrive safely in Narbonne [DE]
• Trouble for Transafricans after 100 meters [DE]
• Ominous words from Team GAC [DE]
• Transafricans begin voyage to Dakar [DE]
• Transafricans stop by Geneva [DE]
• Bon voyage aux Transafricains! [DE]
• Transafricaine rally apéro draws a crowd [DE]
• The real way to see the Sahara

This weekend the world of Formula 1 will gather at the world-famous Nürburgring for Lewis Hamilton the European Grand Prix. Three weeks ago on the same stretch of track, a small group of intrepid racers from the Gstaad Automobile Club gathered for a weekend of modern and classic endurance racing.

For the non-initiated, endurance racing cars are the long distance tourers of the kind used in the famous 24 Heures du Mans race. The cars themselves range from what look like ultra-souped up versions of such road cars as Ferraris, Aston Martins, and Porsche 911s, to full-on prototypes capable of speeds in excess of 300 km/h. And while Audi and Peuguot rule the roost today, back in late seventies, the BMW M1 (shown above) was a major force in the endurance racing scene. And it was by his 1978 M1 that we met up in the paddocks with Stanislas de Sadeleer (of Transafricaine Classic Paris-Dakar Rally fame) on a chilly windswept day at the Nürburgring. de Sadeleer was competing alongside other GAC members, including Stephan Gutzwiller in a classic B15 Chevron with a BMW engine, Christian Traber in another BMW M1, and Karim Ojjeh in the modern Le Mans Series LMP2 category.

In the video below [coming soon], de Sadeleer is in car 38, Traber car 60 (with on-board camera), and Gutzwiller car 3: