Guerlain Chicherit

Guerlain Chicherit is a French businessman, racing team owner, rallycross driver and stunt driver who currently competes in the FIA World Rallycross championship with his own team GC Kompetition.

Previously, Chicherit was a professional skier, becoming freeride world champion four times in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Guerlain Chicherit was the world class skier before starting racing career

Championship title at the start of rallying career

After winning his fourth world title in freeriding, Chicherit suddenly quit that dangerous skiing discipline and switched to rallying. He recorded his first rally experience in 2001 in a Citroen Saxo T4, then improved his results in 2002 and reached the top in the French Citroen Challenge in 2003.

At the wheel of Citroen Saxo T4, sharing a car with Karine Tabone or Michel Perin, he was on a podium three times, including two wins, to take his first championship title.

Guerlain Chicherit's Citroen Saxo in the 2004 Junior WRC

Season in the Junior WRC with Citroen

The next step was a season in the 2004 Junior World Rally Championship as Citroen factory driver. He was driving a Citroen Saxo S1600 in ten WRC events, sharing a car with Michel Perin in two rallies and with Mathieu Baumel in eight rallies.

The season was pretty disappointing because he finished just two rallies, being the first in A6 class at Rally Sweden and fourth in JWRC category at Rally of Turkey.

Guerlain Chicherit at Dakar Rally

Eleven participations at Dakar Rally

After a single season in the World Rally Championship, Chicherit switched to bigger rally cars and longer routes, making a debut at Dakar Rally in 2005 with a Bowler Light Van. His co-driver was Mathieu Baumel. He managed to reach the finish in the first attempt, what was a great result for a rookie.

In 2006, he joined X-Raid Team to drive a BMW X3. He significantly improved his performance, even scoring one stage victory, to finish ninth overall at the finish line. Three more participations followed with X-Raid BMWs, with the fifth-place overall in 2010 as his career-best result at Dakar Rally, when Tina Thörner was his co-driver.

In 2013 and 2014, Chicherit raced at Dakar Rally with SMG buggies, and then two more times in 2015 and 2016 with X-Raid's buggies. In total, he recorded eleven starts at Dakar Rally with four top 10 results.

Guerlain Chicherit and Tina Thörner in 2009

FIA Cross Country Rally World Champion in 2009

During his duties at Dakar Rally with the German X-Raid team, Chicherit also competed in other events. He reached the top of the world in 2009 by winning the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup, together with Tina Thörner in a BMW X3 CC.

That year, he was third at Tunisia Rally and scored victories at Rally Transiberico and UAE Desert Challenge.

Chicherit's backflip in a Mini Countryman

Record breaker and bone breaker

Racing at the world toughest cross country race wasn't offering enough excitement for Chicherit so he was also trying to break some world records with cars. Sometimes, it ended with breaking his bones only.

In February 2013, in his hometown Tignes, he managed to complete the world's first unassisted backflip in a car. He made it in a specially-prepared Monster Mini Countryman. A month later, again in Tignes, he crashed heavily attempting the world’s longest car jump.

Developing a rallycross career since 2015

Chicherit found a new racing challenge in 2015, making a debut in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. He joined British team JRM Racing in two rounds, in September in France and in October in Italy, driving a Mini RX Countryman. Next year, he was driving the same car in four World RX events.

Then, in 2017, he expanded his rallycross commitments to four World RX rounds with Fors Performance Renault Clio Supercars and two rounds with Olsbergs MSE's RX2 car.

Guerlain Chicherit run GC Kompetition team since 2018

Founding his own rallycross team in 2018

While driving rallycross cars for other teams, Chicherit was preparing his own team and his own car, in a partnership with Prodrive, to enter the 2018 World RX season with GC Kompetition team and two Megane Supercars. He was driving one car for the entire season while the second car was driven by three drivers (Jerome Grosset-Janin, Liam Doran and Anton Marklund). Chicherit's best result was the fifth place in Portugal while Grosset-Janin reached a podium with third place in Sweden.

For the 2019 World RX season, the team expanded its operations to four cars, fielding two Meganes for Chicherit and Anton Marklund, and two Renault Clio Supercars for GCK Academy drivers Cyril Raymond and Guillaume de Ridder.

Guerlain Chicherit

Photos: fiaworldrallycross.com,