2019 Dijon Motors Cup! - CSCC Modern

A Lotus and two Peugeots late in the race.

This race on Saturday at the Dijon-Motors Cup featured a very varied field even if the fastest cars all seemed to be Caterham Sevens or BMWs.  The race was part of a series organised by the Classic Sports Car Club and is part of their Cartek Motorsport Modern Classics championship.  Basically it caters for GT and Touring cars up to the end of 1999 and the 2000s, but rather a lot of the cars seemed more recent.  Races are of 40 minutes duration with a mandatory pit-stop and can be for one or two drivers.  Their Saturday race started dry and sunny and then the rain came, so not an easy race for the drivers.    Very nice to see 38 cars taking part and provide us with a nice spectacle on the beautiful Dijon-Prenois circuit.   All of the photos were taken with a Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L ISii USM lens on a Canon 7D Mkii body, and this was the first time I had used the lens.  The combination proved ideal for Dijon and the damp conditions.

Many of the competitors in this race are shown below.  The race for overall victory was between the 2.5 litre Caterhams.   However, there were plenty of classes for the other competitors to race over.

The variety of machinery can be seen in this mid-field shot at the start of the race.

Colin Watson won in his 2,400cc Caterham C400 

Jonathan Pittard came second in a Caterham CSR.  Here he leads Mathew Evans in a BMW 1 Series.

A group of Caterhams.  Car No.45 is Christian Pittard who eventually finished third in his Caterham 7.

Richard Carter was fourth in the Caterham R300.

On the right in this picture, Mark Smith came fifth and in his 1993 BMW M3 Evo E36.

On the left in this picture, the Simpsons came sixth in their Peugeot 206 RC

Adam Howarth came eighth in this 1997 BMW E36 M3.

No.1 Andrew Rath in this 2006 Lotus Europa came ninth.  On the inside is Chris Griffin in a Lotus V6 Cup R.

Taking the inside line, No.17 Alan Thompson finished tenth in his 1996 BMW E36 M3.   Here he is overtaking a 1997 Lotus Elise S1

In eleventh place was Bruce Wilson a a Caterham CSR Superlight.  The No.49 Mini came twelfth.

Colin Philpott came fourteenth in this 1989 Jaguar XJS.

The BMWS of Dominic Malone, Mathew Evans and Mark Smith early in the race.

Chris Boon's 1996 Jaguar XK8.

The 1994 TVR Tuscan of Matt Holben.

Michael Holt and his 1995 Jaguar X300.

The Caterham Blakckbird of Tidy and Armes leading the Simpsons Peugeot.

Matthew Sanders in a BMW M3 leading Simon Evans in a Mazda RX-8

French driver Christophe Deboffe in a MK Indy R leading No.22 Martin Glennie in a 1997 TVR Chimaera and No.89 a 1995 TVR Griffith.

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.

Still close racing in the difficult conditions.

Caterham Blackbird and Trophies.

Coupe de France des Circuits, Dijon-Prenois 2016

Dark and wet start to the day at Dijon-Prenois during the Group A race with Guillaume Margoux leading this group in a 2 litre Alfa Romeo 147.

For Easter we were due to go to the Netherlands but Jane fell down with the flu and thus Plan B came into operation which included a visit to Dijon-Prenois for me on the Sunday.  The Coupe de France des Circuits was having its second round of the year and with its mix of saloons, GT, sports racing, single seaters and karts it provided me with a good morning's entertainment and photography. There were two races for each category of car but I only stayed for the first races.  All photos published here are copyright - see the message near the bottom of this post.

Group A
Group A is for Touring Cars up to 2 litres.   They provided us a good race under rather tricky conditions.

Stéphane Charrel in a 2 litre Renault Clio Cup 3 leading a similar car.

Grégory Touzalin in a 2 litre Honda Civic R.

The difficult conditions at Dijon early on Sunday can be seen in this picture.

Hervé Cuynet leads Jean-Pierre Romain and a group of Renault Clio Cup 3 cars.

Alfa Romeo 147 and Renault Clio Cup 3.

Group C
This category caters for a wide variety of Sports Racing cars up to 2 litres.  Lots of French Normas outside of their normal hillclimb environment.

Nicolas Gallet leads a group of other Norma M20 drivers.

Close action with Norbert Sauvain in a Norma M20FC ahead of Arnaud Perrin's Norma M20.

The wet conditions continued in this race.  In this group of Normas Alerxandre in car 10 dives inside the car 23 of Quentin Bassora.

There were close battles throughout the field with most drivers in the 2 litre Normas.

Superkarts
These are 250cc karts.  Unfortunately most of the race was run under the safety car and was then red flagged.  So not many pictures.  This was a round of the Championnat de France Open de Superkart.

The Superkart 250s with front row sitter Alexandre Sebastia leading this bunch.  He finished fifth.

René Van Dyk who started from the 10th row of the grid.  He finished 11th.

A mid-field bunch of Superkarts.

Monoplaces
This category is for single seaters including Formula 3, Formula Master, Formula BMW, Formula Renault and Formula Ford Zetec.  Many cars were Tatuus Formula Renault cars but there was some variety of cars,  and a few good battles down the field.

Fabien Lavergne in his Tatuus FR20.  Obviously a Jaguar fan.

Joseph Girardeau in a Tatuus FR20 leads the Renault FR Caparo of Jean-Louis Carponcin.

Alain Chariatte in a Tatuus Master.

Conditions were better for the Monoplace race with less spray.

For a bit of variety here is a Dallara F300 driven by Jean-Luc Neri.

Michel Piroird in a Tatuus FR20 leads a group early in the race

GT
The Groupe GT includes a variety of GT cars, silhouette cars and Touring cars.  This race featured one of the best battles of the day featuring a Porsche and a Caterham Seven.

Battle for the lead early in the race between a Porsche, a 2.3 litre Cateram Seven and a 3.5 litre Renault Megane Trophy.

Further back in the field a Porsche 997 Cup leads a Ginetta G50.

The 3.7 litre Ginetta G50 of Bernard Lebaron

The winner was Dominique Laure in this Renault Megane Trophy.

The battle for second place with Francois Ader's Cateram CSR on the outside of the Porsche.

There was much variety throughout the field as evidenced by this 2.0L Audi 82.

The top three drivers and cars after the race in front of the pits.

Group N
Groupe N includes a variety of Touring Cars plus Mitjet 1300 and Legends cars!   I didn't stay for their race as I was off to Saint Romain for a Montée Historique.

The 3.2 litre BMW M3 of Louis Granjon waiting in the paddock for its first race of the weekend.  He finished seventh in the 2nd race later in the day.

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

Links

If you enjoyed these photos click on this link for my other blog site "Auto Vitesse" which a feature on one fast car each day.  Already I have nearly 150 cars featured with an alphabetical search facility.

My two blogs also have a Facebook site "Autovitessephotos", which can visit by clicking here.

If you are a fan of Dijon-Prenois, see my post on last year's GP de l'Age d'Or by clicking on this link.

Here is the official FFSA site that organises the Coupe de France des Circuits.

Here is the Dijon-Prenois official site.

For Brits a circuit where you can easily see the Coupe de France des Circuits close to the Channel ports is Croix en Ternois. Here is their site.   The event their is early September.