Sports Proto / Groupe C - Nogaro - Coupe de France des Circuits - 2023

 

A  litre motor cycle engined CM sports car leads a 1 litre Wolf Thunder Proto.

The Sports Prototype race was a real cracker with a good battle between the Wolf Thunder single seaters with enclosed wheels and a CM motor cycle engined sports car.  They were very rapid for 1 litre cars.   Other slower cars of up to 1.6 litres gave some variety to the field.  

The start of the Sports Proto race and as you can see there are eight Wolf Thunders towards the head of the field with one of the Group CM cars providing a challenge.

Bringing up the rear of the field were a variety of cars of varying vintages.  Leading this group is a Jema 630 GTR.

This was the battle for the lead with Lionel Jacob in his JAD LW01 providing a strong challenge to the Wolf Thunders.

Later Mike Parisy has taken the lead in his Wolf Thunder.  At the back of this group is Nicco Ferrarin who eventually finished second.

Meanwhile there was also a close battle going on for ninth place. Here Hubert Dubois leads the group in his 1.6 litre RCB.

Xavier Barboncon in his nice looking 1 litre motor cycle engined EMA-Susuki that runs in Groupe CM.

Olivier Tabone in his 1.5 litre Alfa Romeo engined Le Gallen LL G82 who finished in eighth place behind the Wolf Thunders.  This is an ex-Coupe de l'Avenir car that runs in Groupe CA.

Xavier Duvignau bumping over the kerbs in his 1.6 litre Serem V858 that runs in Groupe CP.

Continuing battle between the JAD and the Wolf Thunder of Tony Roches who eventually finished third.

A sad end for the JAD that expired in an unsafe position near the end of the race and brought out a red flag.  Thus after count back to the previous lap Lionel was classified fourth and won the CM Groupe.

The winning Wolf Thunder of Mike Parisy.

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.

Thomas Ferrando sitting in his Wolf Thunder on the pre-grid.

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.

36 ème Course de Côte Etretat / Bénouville 2017

The PBR Proto of Alain Bonnet at Etretat.

As well as the VHC cars at Etretat, there were the usual French competitors from Normandy and beyond competing in the French regional hill climb. Competing against these French guys was John Page, a British competitor, who has been hillclimbing in France for many years in his F3 Ralt.  John did well and won his class and finished in the top ten.  It was a shame that I had to leave early and was unable to congratulate him.   The ASA Côte d'Albâtre did their usual good job of organising this end of summer hill climb over the 1.62 Km course between Etretat and Bénouville in Normandy.

The top twenty fastest cars based on their fastest of three runs, at the Course de Cote Etretat/Benouville.  They were taking part in a round of the Coupe de France de la Montagne and are all shown below in the order that they were classified:

The overall winner was Fabien Ponchant in this F3 Dallara F302.  He was fastest on every run.

Second was this Dallara F307 of Bertrand Lassalle.

Third overall and winner of the sports car class was Alain La Sausse in his Norma M20FC.

Fourth overall was the Dallara F300 of Alban Lapotre.

Second in the sports car classs was William Pommery in this Norma M20B.

Third in the sports car class was Joel Maugy in this Norma M20F 

Seventh overall was this Dallara F308 of Dominique Hamel.

Fastest in the motor cycle engined sports car class was Olivier Dumont in this BRC 05 Evo PEP.

John Page in his F3 Ralt RT32 won his class and was ninth overall.

Rounding out the top ten was this Reynard 873 of Olivier Besnier.

Jean-Yves Doree won his class in this beautiful old Grac MT14S.

Yannick Roussel won his group and class in this Porsche 997 GT3 RS.

Winner of the Formula Renault class was Roger Guezet in this Tatuus FR2000.

Fourteenth overall and second in class was this Jema 630 GT driven by Yves Villain.

Fastest of the Touring Cars was Herve Jean in a Seat Leon Supercopa.

Just beaten in the A4 group was this other Seat Leon Supercopa of Julien Dupont.

An attractive addition to the field was this Jema 610 GT of Pierre-Louis Fouillen.

Janick Janin won his class in this Tatuus FR2013.

Fourth in the motorcycle engined sports cars class was this BRC 02 of Patrick Noe.

In twentieth position overall and winning his class was Michel Bineau in this Nissan Almera Kit Car.

For the Pre-War VSCC cars competing at Etretat in 2017, click here.

For the Post-War VHC cars competing at Etretat in 2017, click here.

For the Post Historic VHC cars competing at Etretat in 2017, 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.

The hill climb course with Etretat in the background.