Course de Côte d'Exmes, 2019

Christian Boullenger's Renault Clio RS won his Group and Class at Exmes.

The Course de Cote d’Exmes is a 1,500 metres dash up the D14 into the Normandy village of Exmes, which has about 300 inhabitants.  It takes the top drivers around 40 seconds. Spectators get a reasonable view of two or three corners after paying their 5 Euros admittance.  It is also popular to be at the top of the hill and see the cars gather and drive through the old village main street.  For amateur photographers it is not the best of hills as one cannot get very close to the cars when they are at speed.  Still, I was up to the challenge and it is less than two hours’ drive from where I live so I arrived mid-morning to see practice and stayed to see the first of the runs after lunch.   An early evening picnic date with my wife stopped me staying longer and in any case I already had a good variety of shots in the digital “can”. Thus, I missed the bad accident that left one of the drivers hospitalized later in the day.  It was apparently the first bad accident on this hill; let’s hope it is the last and that the driver rapidly recovers.  This is quite a fast course and as usual as it is run on public road not a lot of protection for the brave drivers apart from the hay bales.

The main street in Exmes with Jessica Moulinet ready to lead the field onto their first afternoon run.

The field was apparently smaller than previous years but there were still lots of interesting racing cars and not too many of the boring standard small road cars one gets at some climbs.  The top positions were being fought out between the F3 and Norma drivers whilst there were lots of Simca Rallye 2 & 3s to keep old guys like me nostalgic.  It was also interesting to see a number of homemade cars, an essential element of grass-roots hill climbing in my opinion.  The 39th running of the Course de Côte d'Exmes, this was a regional hillclimb counting towards La Coupe de France.  All of the runners are captured in my pictures below, in the order that they were classified:
1.  #3  Gaëtan Renouf - Dallara F300, Overall Winner

A very fast last run took Gaëtan to the win with his Dallara.

The winner was in a F3 single seater which is class D/E 5s in French hillclimbing.

2.  #15  Freddy Cadot – NormaM20F – Group Winner

Freddy looked a likely winner until the last run.

The second placed car was a 2 seater sports prototype of two litre which is classs  CN 2 in French Hillclimbing.

3.  #17  Arthur Saint-Germain – Norma M20F

4.  #6  Rémy Fievre – Dallara F302

5.  #16  Jean-Yves Bouete – Norma M20F

Jean-Yves Bouete was going very fast before his unfortunate accident.

6.  #30  Denis Pilet – Silvercar S2F Evo – Class Winner

Denis Pilet (right) talking to the other drivers next to his Silvercar.

The Silvercar is in class CM which is a class for motorcycle engined sports cars of up to 1,003cc.

7.  #4  Alban Lepotre – Dallara F302 evo 305

8.  #5  Francis Renouf – Martini Mk79

Tyres wrapped on the Martini in the paddock.

9.  #18  Joel Maugy – Norma M20F

10.  #27  Gilbert Isabelle – BRC 02

11.  #8  Olivier Besnier – Reynard 873 – Class Winner

This Reynard won class D/E2 which is for 1,300 to 1605cc single seaters.

12.  #22  Jean-Pierre Picault – Barquette 

13.  #28  Tony Pasteau – Siilvercar S2

14.  #71  Mathieu Nouet – Simca Rallye 3 – Group Winner

Simca Rallye 3 in the paddock at the top of the village.

This Simca Rallye 3 won class FC4 which is for over 2 litre modified production cars from 1993 or prior.

15.  #25  Jean-Yves Dorée – Grac MT14S – Class Winner

Jean-Yves Dorée waiting for a run in his beautiful old Grac.

The Grace won class CNF1 which is for sports cars of up to 1,600cc.

16.  #19  Arnaud Herriau – Norma

17.  #12  Romain Letouze – Letouze F2 LJR – Class Winner

The Letouze won the class for up to 1,300cc single seaters.

18.  #29  Grégory Martin – BRC 05

Two of the fast CM cars wait for the afternoon runs.

19.  #55  Christian Boullenger – Renault Clio RS – Group Winner

This Renault was the fastest F2000 car which is for modified productions cars that are morer than 5 years old.

20.  #36  Geoffroy Bouhin – Seat Leon SC – Group Winner

The Seat won Group A which is for Touring Cars with limited modification.

21.  #39  Julien Dupont – Peugeot 308RC – Class Winner

22.  #64  Reinold Lafaye – Citroën Saxo VTS – Class Winner

23.  #32  Jean-Jacques Maurel – Peugeot RCZ Cup – Group Winner

The Peugeot won the group for Mitjets and RCZ Cup cars.

24.  #41  Michel Bineau – Nissan Almera – Class Winner

25.  #79  Philippe Bobinier – Simca Rallye 3 – Class Winner

26.  #48  Charly Brosset – Honda Civic Rep 3 – Group Winner

This Honda Civic was the fastest of the Group FN for production touring cars with no modifications except for safety.

27.  #70  Henri Blanchard – BMW M3

28.  #78  Aurelien Delamare – Simca Rallye 2

This is the start of the section that the spectators see.

29.  #67 Jérome Kerdraon – Peugeot 106 – Class Winner

30.  #50  Yann Duhamel – Honda Integra

The Honda coming down the hill for a run.

31.  #80  Frédéric Leverne – Simca Rallye 2

32.  #20  Thierry Moulinet – Funyo 4RS

Thierry Moulinet was responsible for relaunching this hillclimb in 2006.

33.  #56  Anthony Fleury – Renault Clio RS

34.  #9  Pascal Marais - Migale

35.  #1  Janick Janin – Tatuus FR – Class Winner

36.  #49  Pascal Lesaulnier – Honda Integra

37.  #45  Stéphane Pecate – Subaru WRX – Class Winner

38.  #62  Frédéric Rioult – Citroën Saxo

39.  #10  Jean-Paul Hoyau - JPH

40.  #44  Francis Maris – BMW M3

41.  #81  Frédéric Jeanne – Simca Rallye 3

42.  #73  Thibault Paul – Simca Rallye 2 – Class Winner

43.  #61  Jean-Michel Caraby – Peugeot 106 xsi\

44.  #59  John Bourhis – Peugeot 205

45.  #54  David Robine – BMW 320i

46.  #65  Rémy Hervieu – Peugeot 306 S16

47.  #66  Sébastien Jeanne – Peugeot 205 GTi

48.  #34  Leonard Lusardi – Lotus Elise – Group Winner

This Lotus ran in the class for  production GT cars.

49.  #46  Christophe Duray – Renault GT Turbo

50.  #60  Philippe Havas – Peugeot 205 GTi

51.  #74  Yves Rabec – Simca Rallye 2

52.  #42  Pascal Schenk – Renault Clio 2 Cup

53.  #37  James Debeauvais – Seat Léon

54.  #220  Jessica Moulinet – Funyo 4RS – 1^st Female Competitor

55.  #68  Laetitia Ribot – Simca Rallye 2

56.  #63  Alexandre Bourgeois – Peugeot 205 GTi

57.  #52  Fabrice Vallet – Peugeot 106 xsi – Class Winner

58.  #58  Marise Hoyau – Peugeot 106

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.

DNS.  #24  Jean-Denis Bretel – Barges AM111

Bretel's car starts to blast out smoke during practice.