Rouen-les-AFX: July 2017

Saturday, 29 July 2017

32 ème Course de Côte Régionale de Lormes, 2017

David Alexandre in his Ligier JS51 attacks the hill. He finished fifth in class and 12th overall.

What I love, more perhaps than the cars or motor sport itself, is the atmosphere that certain motor sport venues have. This year, on my first visit to the Course de Cotes de Lormes, I found a very friendly and welcoming atmosphere. This atmosphere is helped by the very beautiful surrounding countryside of the Morvan, a very special part of Burgundy. It is helped by the smiles at the gate, plenty of bar facilities and the excellent accessibility this particular hillclimb has. Entrance was free and an excellent programme was on sale for one Euro. The excellent organisers are Ecurie Morvan des Lacs. The hillclimb was a round of the Coupe de France de la Montagne.

The course itself is of just under two kilometres of which spectators can see about 90% and which squeezes fourteen corners into its length. It climbs up through a forest but there is enough light to get good photos. You are very close to the track most of the time and thus I found my 70-300 zoom rather extreme!

This was the 32nd running of this hillclimb. Previous winners have included Geofrey and Nicolas Schatz. Another many time previous winner has been Serge Thomas who won for the first time here back in 1985. He was to go on to win again in 2017 after his main competitor crashed out on his second run.

I attended the free practice on Saturday afternoon. Here are some of the runners arranged by group.

Group E Single Seaters
Single Seaters in regional French Hill Climbs comprise mainly old F3 and Formula Renault cars with a few motor cycle engined single seaters thrown in.

Gael Boisson was very fast in his F3 Dallara F307 and won his class and came second overall despite just completing one run. He crashed out in the second run.

Gael Boisson awaiting another run up the hill during Saturday practice.

The F3 Dallara 399 of Olivier Gregoire who finished ninth overall and second in the class

Fastest lady driver was Stéphanie Tordeux in a Tatuus FR2000. She came 19th overall and won her class.

Franck Alloin in his Mygale-Susuki was 3rd in the 1300cc Single Seater class and 14th overall.

The class winning Martini Mk76 of the Chatelain brothers.

The Ligier JS47 that came second in class driven by Jean-Pierre Bouchard.

Another picture of the F3 Dallara 399 of Olivier Gregoire.

Reynald Aimé in his Dallara F301

Stéphanie Tordeux being wheeled to the start in her Formula Renault Tatuus.

David Mayeur's Martini Mk 62 awaiting for the start with his mechanic by the side. He finished first in class.

Martini Mk76 being worked on in the paddock.

Group CN Prototypes
The CN Prototypes are often the fastest class at many hillclimbs, sometime challenged by the F3 cars.

David Alexandre's Ligier JS51 leaves the line at the bottom of the hill.

The Norma M20F of Pascal Paire just after the start.

The Noma M20B of William Pommery.

This is the third placed overall Norma M20F of Sébastien Godot. He was second in class.

Sébastien Godot waiting for another run on Saturday.

Eric Bernhard in a PHC Dinatmo.

Eric Bernard in his PHC Dinatmo. He was first in class.

This is the rear of Serge Thomas's winning Norma M20FC

CM - Motorcycle engined Sports Cars

Florian Serralta in his BRC Evo 05 at the start. He was to win the CM class.

Franck Gregoire in his Speedcar GTR that finished third in class.

Group N - Standard Production Touring Cars
Group N is for standard production touring cars of which more than 5,000 have been produced in one year.

The Renualt Clio Ragnotti of Sylvestre Pigenet. He was first in his class.

Group N Peugeot 106 S16

Group A - Modified Touring Cars
These are Group N Touring cars with limited modifications to engines, gearboxes and suspension and lightened bodies.

The Renault Clio RS 2 Cup of Thomas Chavot that won its class and came second in Grp A.

The winner of Group A was Richard Prat in this Seat Leon Super Copa.

Group FC - Pre July 2005 Touring Cars
Group FC always tends to be dominated by old rear engined Simcas but you also see Renaults and other makes occasionally.

The winner of Group C was Patrice Chapat in his Simca Rallye II 16S.

The beautigul Simca CG of Pascal Simonet. He was second in the Group FC and won his class.

The Simca Rallye II of Charles Guizzon passes a marshall post half way up the hill. He was classified last.

This Renault R5 TDC of the Denisets didn't record an official time on Sunday.

GTTS - GT & Tourisme Spéciales.
This category caters for GT Cup cars, GT Plus cars, Silhouette Touring cars, Mitjets, Supercars, WRC, DTM cars and other similar categories.

Claude Underwald in his Mitjet Light finished second in the GTTS group.

GT Cars
This caters for series GT cars. At Lormes it was just one Cateram Seven shared by two drivers.

The Cateram Seven of Claude Saint-Germain.

F2000 Touring Cars
This catergory is for older Touring Cars that have previous been homologated in Groups N,A, FN or FA.

F2000 Peugeot 306 S16 at the start line driven by Nicolas Logar.

Citroen Xsara VTS driven by Olivier Cunier

For photos of all the cars from the 2017 Course de Cote de Sancerre, click here.

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.

Sunday, 9 July 2017

Musée Ateliers des Pionniers, Gallardon.

Motor Cycle and Cycle exhibits in the permanent exhibition.

The Musée Ateliers des Pionneers is a small museum situated in an old Railway Goods Shed in Gallardon, France. For those who love old motor bikes and bicycles this a great place to visit. I have more of interest in cars and this year's special exhibition is "Microcars and Voiturettes". Thus, I paid them a visit this weekend. Lots of very small cars, most of which i had never heard of! Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. They have some exhibits that you can play with to give interest. Open only Saturday and Sunday afternoons between April and October. Visit their website if interested - link below:
http://www.musee-ateliers-des-pionniers.fr/index.html

A steam powered tri-cycle.

Part of the special exhibition dedicated to Microcars.

Something for aviation enthusiasts as well.

I had never heard of the marque Rolux before today!

An early hybrid car from 1952 in the special microcar exhibition.

Many other exhibits other than those pictured here.

Friday, 7 July 2017

Road to Le Mans - LMP3 & GT3 support race

First lap action in the road to Le Mans race.

The Road to Le Mans race was a support race at the 2017 Le Mans 24 hours and a round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup series. This huge field of LMP3 and GT3 cars featured cars from that series, the ELMS series plus a number of one-off competitors. Although it had a great variety of cars, I didn't find the race particularly close or interesting. However, I am sure the drivers relished the chance to race on the full 24 hour circuit. The race I saw was on the Saturday morning and lasted for 55 minutes and was the second race for these cars of the week. 49 cars took part and the format of the race was that each car had to have a mandatory pitstop to change driver. The faster cars covered 13 laps. Here are some of the cars that took part. As an experiment and to keep out of the sun I took all of these photos from the Tertre Rouge grandstand.