Rouen-les-AFX: November 2016

A much younger and slimmer me with a Jaguar Group C car.

It seems incredible that I haven't been to Brands Hatch for nearly 30 years, especially considering the number of times I went there in the sixties and seventies. The occasion of my last visit was the Brands Hatch 1,000kms of 1987. That year it was round 7 of the Sports Prototype World Championship and although the TWR Jaguars were dominant that year they had just been beaten at Norisring by the Richard Lloyd entered Porsche 962 of Baldi and Palmer and at Le Mans by the works Porsche 962C of Stuck, Bell and Holbert. This was of course the Group C era with the Group C1 cars fighting for overall honours but with a second class, Group C2, fighting it out for the FIA Group C cup.

The entry for the Brands event was certainly not the best of the year with just 28 cars starting of which just seven were the Group C1 cars. At that time teams were not compelled to enter every race. Thus Brands was very much a TWR Jaguar versus privateer Porsche 962 race, with the only Sauber wrecking itself in practice. The Group C2 entry was better with an excellent field of competitive cars. My interest was more in the Jaguars as I hadn't seen the Jaguar XJR-8 race before. The Jaguars didn't disappoint me and started 1-2 on the grid.

The early leader was the No.4 Jaguar XJR-8 of Jan Lammers and John Watson. It is seen here on the climb up to Druids.

Close racing on the entry to Druids with the Richard Lloyd Liqui Moly Porsche 962 leading a Jaguar as they lap a C2 car. The Liqui Moly car driven by Mario Baldi and Johnny Dumfries was to finish second.

The winning Jaguar XJR-8 of Raul Boesel and John Nielsen heading towards Clearways.

The John Nicholson/Jean-Louis Ricci/Olinda Iacobelli Spice Ford Cosworth SE86C. It eventualy finished sixth in the Group C2 class.

To find out more about the Spice SE86C, click here.

Group C2 action at Druids.

The Lammers/Watson Group C Jaguar XJR-8 at speed. It eventually finished third after problems.

The class winning C2 Ecosse of Ray Mallock and David Leslie.

The works Spice leads a 962.

The Group C field included various marques including Spice, Argo-Zakspeed, ALD-BMW and Tiga. However, Ecurie Ecosse were to claim the win after the works Spice of Gordon Spice and Fermin Velez ran into problems.

Jaaguar and Porsche heading up Hawthorn Hill.

The race lasted about five and a half hours and the first two cars ended on the same lap . Jaguar won with Porsche second. Ecuries Ecosse beat Spice in C2 just as they had at Silverstone. At the end of the season the TWR Silk Cut Jaguars won the team Championship with eight victories whilst Spice Engineering won the C2 Cup. Raul Boesel took the drivers championship from Jan Lammers and John Watson. Fermin Verlez and Gordon Spice took the C2 drivers championship.

The support race for Touring cars. Just after the start with the field coming through Paddock bend.

I can't remember what camera I was using at the time but it may have been an Olympus OM10 with 100mm lens. Captured on film and then scanned.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost. However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

Trophée Tourisme Endurance, Magny Cours - Octobre 29, 2016. Le premier tour avec Seat, VW., Peugeot et GC10 Silhouette VW.

TTE Magny-Cours

It is perhaps surprising that I have been to Magny-Cours just a few times even though I have a house only one hour away. Seeing the field for the TTE event at the end of October was enough to tempt me back and I was not disappointed. There was plenty to enjoy including;

Seeing Nicolas Schatz racing on a circuit rather than driving up a mountain.
Interesting cars such as the rare French marque Hommell racing.
Lots of beautiful sports prototypes and GT cars - my favourite subjects for photographing.
Large field of up to nearly fifty cars on the circuit at the same time.
A pleasant autumn day which was overcast but not dull.
Seeing a number of drivers really attacking the circuit.
Free access to all of the village grandstands.

A really enjoyable two and a half hours on the Saturday afternoon. I can recommend attending a TTE event.

Free Racing
I made a point of getting there in time for the qualifying session of this race as there was such a variety of cars. TTE Free Racing has rounds at various French circuits including Dijon, Nogaro, Paul Ricard and of course Magny-Cours. Everything from Protos to GT cars to Production cars. Sports prototypes of any period are allowed including the categories C2, CN, CNF, CM et Coupes de Marques. GT cars include silhouettes, Coupes des Marques and all types of GT cars including classic GT cars. Various types of Touring cars are also allowed, again of any age. Thus this allows a huge variety of cars to take part. Lots of interesting cars as you can see below:

The T2 Racing Ligier JS53 Evo2 that qualified fifth.

The Peugeot 406 Silhouette that qualified twelfth and third in the GT Cup class.

The Team WRS Osella PA8 leads a Mitjet Supertourisme through the Chicane. The Osella qualified eighth.

No mistaking this as anything other than a Porsche 935 Turbo. It was driven by Alain Pfefferle and he qualified sixteenth.

The Astra Silhouette of the Chotard team that qualified twentieth.

The Radical SR3 RS of Team Saint Aubin crosses the start finish line. It qualified seventh.

More about the Radical SR3 RS if you click here.

The Diversay's Peugeot 406 competing in the GT Cup class.

The Norma M20F of Thierry Dannenmuller who qualified second.

Two Caterhams sandwiching a Norma.

Very unusual to see a Hommell RS2 racing. It qualified in 40th place in the huge field of 45 cars.

More about the Hommell marque if you click here.

The unusual Peugeot Spider THP of Romain Ronchin. It qualified in 28th place.

For more about the Peugeot Spider THP, click here.

The Bio Racing BRS 4L of Serge Derviaux. It qualified 15th.

More about the this Bio Racing car if you click here.

The BMW of Steve Compain bouncing over the kerbs at the chicane. Not the Dodge Viper it said in the results!

Fastest qualifier was Christian Labarbe in his Norma 20FC.

Amongst all the exotica were production cars such as this Opel Astra T16.

The top GT Cup car was this Porsche GT3 of Thierry Niederhauser

It is more normal to see multi-French Hillclimb champion Nicolas Schatz competing on the mountains of France, but he proved equally at home on the Magny Cours circuit and won both the Free Racing races of the weekend despite qualifying well down the field in 21st place.

Protos
The Protos had an interesting field with the Normas the most competitive. These Sports prototypes compete in 3 hour endurance races. However, as well the ultra-competitive Normas there were Ligiers, Funyo and Radicals taking part. It was great watching these cars really accelerating out of the chicane and getting their outside wheels off the circuit as they really attacked the circuit during practice. Eligible cars include class CN up to 3 litres and 6 cylinders, group CN-F up to 2.5 litres and group CM up to 1 litre.

Leading a group through the chicane is the car the eventually won the Protos trophy at Magny Cours, the Norma M20FC of the DB Autos team.

Top qualifier was the Blue team Norma M20 of Jean-Philipe Jouvent and Dominique Cauvin. Seen here half off the track as it crosses the timing signal.

Fifth place in qualifying went to this Krafft racing Norma M20.

Fastest qualifier outside of the Normas was this Ligier JS53 of the Pole Position team.

Protos breaking and turning into Chateau d'Eau.

Adding variety to the field was this Tatuus of the Extreme Limits team.

An earlier Ligier JS51 that qualified tenth.

Further variety was provided by this Funyo SP05 of Xavier Cousin.

Best placed finisher outside of the top six Normas was this T2 racing Ligier JS53.

Mitjet 1300
The Mitjet 1300s were the first Mitjet cars and are powered by 150 hpYamaha engines and share the same tubular chassis but with a number of different body styles vaguely based on well known marques such as Ferrari, Aston Martin, BMW and Volkswagen. I was able to watch their first race which was had fought and was great to watch.

Olivier Martin in his Ferrari-look-alike Mitjet 1300. He was to finish third.

Battle under braking into Lycée.

That battle continues into the chicane.

Olvier Martin leads Simon Crochart and Olivier Forzano.

Further back Ludovic Revol is in sixth place.

A lap or two later and Tim Grosrenaud is in the lead and Ludovic Revol is still in sixth.

A few laps later and Tim Grosrenaud has spun and dropped out and Olivier Martin is back in the lead with Ludovic Revol is up to second.

Ludovic Revol eventually took the flag in first place.

TTE 4 hours
The big race was the 4 hour endurance race for modified touring cars and production fully enclosed GT cars. Unfortunately, the program was running late due to an incident in the Protos qualifying and I had a rendevous an hour away. However, I did see the first lap which was very impressive with such a large field.