47ème Course de Côte régionale de Tonnerre,

The fastest at Tonnerre this year was Romain Richardeau in a Dallara F397 evo F398.

This was only my second Course de Côte of 2020  because of the Covid19 crisis, but a very pleasant one and a new one for me.  Thanks to the organisers, Ecurie Vauban, for maintaining their event when so many others have cancelled.  The hill climb runs up from the fire station in Tonnere to a farm "La Ferme de Chape".  Tonnere is in the north west of the Burgundy region of France.  Parking for spectators is at the top of the hill near the farm and I must remember this for the next time I go as it is difficult to find from the centre of town.  The course is quite undulating with some downhill as well as uphill sections and  is 1.5 kilometres in length, so a fast time is just under 50 seconds for the Formula 3 cars.  96 drivers were classified and 30 of them feature in this post.  The runs which counted were on Sunday but I attended the practice runs on Saturday afternoon 15th August  to avoid the crowds.  Nevertheless, there were still a lot of us on the hill on Saturday as well on a beautifully sunny day.  Very nice to see such a good field of cars and quite a good hill for taking photographs.  A hill climb to come back to again !

One surprise of the day was seeing a Wolf racing car in the old Walter Wolf racing colours.  I hadn't realised that an Italian producer had bought the rights to the Walter Wolf Racing name and had produced a CN Prototype car in 2010.  Certainly a pleasant surprise and nice to see some variety from the host of the usual Normas of which there were relatively few of at Tonnerre.

A very well known hillclimb car in this region is the beautiful Ligier JS47 of Jean-Pierre Boucharrd.  It finished second.

Third was Gilbert Isabelle in a Dallara F399. 

Florian Serralta was fourth in a Speedcar GTR Evo 19 and won the CM class.

Fifth was the Tatuus FR2000 of Laurent Varlet which won the Formule France class.

Michael France in a Dallara F304 was sixth.

Seventh was the Dallara BAM F394 of Martial Conte.

Arnaud Pignol was eighth in a Tatuus FR2000.

Tenth was the Norma M20F of Philippe Fusillier which won the CN class.

In eleventh and fastest of the female competitors was Marion Alexandre in her Ligier JS51.

Twelfth was the Wolf GB08 of Luc Francois.

Rodolphe Simonnet was 13th in his Alpine A110 and won his class.

Fourteenth was Stephane Picault in a JPS FC.

The Porsche GT2 of Morane Cat Mackowiak was fifteenth and won its class.

Twentieth was the Renault Clio 4 RS of David Deremond.

Christian Boullanger was 21st in his Renault Clio Rs.

22nd was Pascal Simonot in a CG Simca which won its class.

The Peugeot RCZ Cup of Jean-Jacques Maurel was 23rd.

24th was the Peugeot 106 of Maxime Meyer.

The Nissan Almera of Michel Bineau was 25th.

28th was the Renault Clio Williams of Damien Kosk.

Winner of the FC/FS 1 call was this Simca Rallye 2 of Bernard Delniau.

A rather good looking Farm Tork Mitjet 1300 won the GTTS 1 class in the hands of Cedric Boureille.

Giles Berger won the F2000 1 class in his Peugeot 205 Rallye.

Winner of the FN2 class was this Honda Civic of Jerome Chardin.

Franck Jovin won the FA 1 class in this Peugeot 106 XSI.

3rd in the FC/FS 1 class was Bernard Martin in the Simca Rallye 2.

The Peugeot 405 of James Skolylas.

Second of the three lady drivers was Melanie Robert in this Peugeot 205.

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.

A Renault Clio nears the finish line at the top of the hill.