5ème Course de Côte d'Argenton-Bouglon, 2022

 

Speeding past the fields of gold is the winning Norma M20 FC of Fabrice Gallo.

The 2022 Course de Côte d'Argenton-Bouglon had a small but quality field.   Despite there being just 34 competitors, I thoroughly enjoyed this hillclimb, which I had also attended last year.  For amateur photographers like myself there is great access to most of the course and lots of opportunities to take some good shots.  All of the competitors that took part in the Saturday August 20th hillclimb cab be seen below in a variety of shots from different parts of the hill.  Located in the Lot and Garonne department in South West France, this was the fifth time that  Argenton and Bouglon had held a hillclimb on the road between the two villages.  Long may they continue to do so.  This was a regional hillclimb qualifying for the Coupe de France de la Montagne 2022 and the Nouvelle Aquitaine Sud league.

Fabrice Gallo in his Norma M20 FC comes over the rise on the D106 from Argenton to turn up the 

D147 to Bouglon.  He was fastest with a time of 35.774 seconds up the 1.2km hill.  Fabrice won also in 2018 and 2020.

Second place went to Romain Patacconi in his Norma M20 FC.   The Norma seems to be the car to have on this hill as it has won in different hands the last two years and took the two top places on the podium this year.

Romain and his Norma arrive in Bouglon just after the end of his third run.

Third place and first of the single seaters went to Vincent Rannou in this Dallara D301 Opel

Another shot of Vincent in his Dallara.

Fourth was Jérôme Bris in his Tatuus Formula Master single seater.  Rare to see these cars in the regional climbs.

Jérôme exits the corner in  his Tatuus and heads up the steep hill to Bouglon.

Frédéric Rouseau was fifth fastest and the first of the motor cycle engined sports cars in his Speedcar GTR.

Frédéric looked fast all day and here he gets slightly crossed up towards the top of the hill on his first practice run.

Sixth was Nicloas Filiatre in his Dallara F392.

Nicolas and his F3 Dallara at speed on a hot and sunny Saturday afternoon.

The only other car to beat the 40 second barrier was the TracKing RC01B of Marc-Antoine Blanchemain.

The striking "DTM BMW" look of Marc-Antoine's TracKing RC01B which came seventh.

Eighth was this Fior F05 driven by Didier Gimenez.

Didier in the rare Fior 05.

Ninth was Guy-Philippe Patacconi in the Martini Mk69 BMW.

Guy-Philippe's Martini-BMW is sometimes described as a Formula 2 car but this is a hillclimb category and not the old European F2 series of old.

Fastest of the tin tops, winner of the FC/FS group and with an impressive tenth place was Jean-Louis Simorre in the Renault 5 Turbo.

The Renault 5 Turbo comes over the crest on the D106 out of Argenton.

Eleventh was the Speedcar GTR of Fabrice Ousset.

Fabrice and his Speedcar head up the hill through the corn fields.

In an impressive twelfth place and first of the Group N/FN production cars was Loic Larquey in this Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10.   

Rear view of the Mitsubishi Lancer as it climbs the hill.

In thirteenth place was Xavier Deschamps in this Speedcar GTR.

In fourteenth place and first of the Simcas was Philippe Quioc in this Simca Rallye 2.

Fifteenth was the Lotus Exige of Christophe Carrere.

Sixteenth was Christophe Mazet in this Renault Clio 3 Cup.  He was fast of the Group A/FA cars.

Seventeenth was the Matra-Simca Bagheera of Florian Patacconi.  Another rare car to see in the FC/FS class on French hillclimbs.

Eighteenth was this Simca Rallye 3 of Maxime Chevallereau.

An impressive drive into nineteenth place for Geoffrey Georgevitch in this Renault Clio 3 who won the F2000 Group.

Twentieth position went to the Funyo B4 of Gérard Gimenez.

In 21st position was the Renault Clio 4 RS of Thomas Vergines.

On the first run the Mitjet 2L of Romain Vassal had the handicap of a flapping passnger door.  He finished 22nd.

23rd was the Simca Rallye 2 of Jean-Marie Delage.

24th was Jacques "Rambo" Lesaulnier in this Renault Clio 3 Cup.

25th was Christophe Bernard in a Peugeot 206 RC.

26th was the Citroën ZX 16v of Sébastien Dumas.

27th was Pascal Fanget in a Peugeot 206 XS.

28th was the Citroën Saxo VTS of Alexandra Dupin.  She was the only female driver competing.

29th was Francis Lagarrue in this Renault 5 GT Turbo.

Locking up under braking is Bruno Guillon in an Alfa Romeo 75 V6 that finished 30th.

31st was Jérôme Robert in a Peugeot 306 S16.

32nd was Jean-Louis Ghirardi in a Renault Clio RS.

33rd was Charles Putun-Harriet in a Peugeot 306 S16.

34th was the Renault Megane Cup of Jose Rios.

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 à condition de créditer le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com, et de fournir un lien vers cette page.

Formula Master Tatuus.

Mitjet just after leaving the start line in Argenton.

Mitjet just after crossing the finishing line just under 50 seconds later in Bouglon.