From The Archives - Montlhéry 2002

Some circuits have a real atmosphere that is difficult to define. They seem to have a specific atmosphere that reminds you of their past glories.  I always loved Silverstone for that reason even if the viewing wasn't as good as Brands Hatch for example.   You visit the old pits at Reims and you definitely feel it.  L'autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry also has it in spades.  With Montlhéry it is perhaps easy to define why you feel it.  So much is unchanged and the steepness of the banking is very impressive.

I first visited Montlhéry in 2002 when it still had a few short years to go as an active motor racing circuit and included in my visits to the circuit that year was the Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or in June 2002.  All of the photos in the blog post were taken from that meeting.  They give you some idea of what the banked circuit was like.

Back in 2002 I had only an early Nikon digital compact camera with a very slow shutter reaction so taking racing pictures was very difficult.  The megapixels were also low which meant the quality was marginal by today's standards.  However, I was happy with my results from that day.

A seventies Renault F1 car doing demo laps on the high banking to celebrate 25 years of Renault in F1

A - close-up - I think this may be Jean Ragnotti driving Renault RS01

This view from the old grandstands really shows the steepness of the banking during a race for 1 litre cars

Looking the other way you can see where the road circuit diverged from the full banked circuit.  The full banked circuit was 1.6 miles long and often used for record breaking attempts by both French and British manufacturers.

The history of Montlhery goes right back to 1924.   Pre-war it held the French GP with winners including Robert Benoist (1925 & 1927),  Louis Chiron (1931,1934 & 1937) , Guiseppe Campari (1933), Rudolph Caracciola (1935) and Jean-Pierre Wimille / Raymond Sommer (1936).   Of these the 1936 and 1937 races were for sports cars with Bugatti winning in 1936 and Talbot in 1937.     The day I went there was a race for pre-war sports cars bringing back memories off those events especially as there was a Talbot of that era present.

Pre War sports cars on the start-finish straight heading towards Les Deux points hairpin

Richard Pilkington in the very rare 1937/38 Talbot T26

After the war it became a circuit mainly for the smaller single seaters and also held some big sports car races including the Paris 1,000kms for many years.   The last big races at Montlhery were the 1994 and 1995 Paris 1,000 km events.  After this it was minor events untill about 2005/6 when racing here was no more.  However, there remains main track days and demonstration events so one can still admire this old circuit.

In the Formules de Promotion race Dominique Bertin takes the hairpin in his Formula France Martini Mk4

Other small single seaters head out of La Ferme towards Le Virage du Faye

Lotus Sevens head through La Ferme…..

…and then through Le Virage du Faye and back towards the banked part of he circuit 

David Smithies (50) and Eric Woolley (116) battle it out through the chicane prior to the banking in the GT race in their Austin Healey 3000s

The road course part of Montlehery is not that impressive but the steep banking is really awesome. It must have been really scary driving around there at well over 100mph especially before they put a barrier at the top of the banking.  Unfortunately it was really dangerous and rather too many good drivers met there end here including Antonio Ascari, Louis Rosier and Guy Mairesse.

Guy Clairay high up the banking in his TVR Griffith in the French Championship GT/Tourisme race

Rene Sontrop at speed in his Jaguar E Type

Diva GT battles it out with the Austin Healey 3000s on the banking

Bernard Wilhelm's Jaguar E Type chasing Gerard Lepron's Volvo 122S

Nicolas Maurel in his Alpine Renault A110 leads Miguel Langin's Porsche 911S in the 'Saloon Car" race.

The beautiful sixties Chevrolet Camaro of Olivier Haquette

Christian Bultiauw in his DeTomasco Mangusta

Luc Cheminot gets really high on the banking in his Alfa Romeo Guilia 1600

Close racing on the Montlhery banking from the saloon cars.

Streamlined 1964 Panhard CD Le Mans doing a demo

Nice memories and I am glad I got to see some racing here.

Anyone wanting to see more pictures and read more about Montlhery should get Michel Bollée's excellent book - Les 1 000 Kilometres de Paris.

Gerard Lepron in his beautiful Swedish Flag Volvo

AC Cobra 289 leading the GT race

1931 MG Montlhery Midget named after George Eyston successful 24 hour record attempt at the circuit