Rouen-les-AFX: Circuit de Remparts

Tuesday, 19 September 2023

Circuit des Remparts 2023 - Plateau Maurice Trintignant - Avant Guerre

The winning 1937 Austin Seven of Christian Pedersen. He dominated practice and the race.

The first race of the weekend at the 2023 Circuit des Remparts at Angoulême was for small capacity pre-war cars. Thus, this was a field of small cars from Austin, Riley, Salmson, GN and MG. 19 cars took part in this 15 lap race on this short street track of 1.28 kilometres (about 0.8 miles). This plateau was named after Maurice Trintignant who won the 1949 Circuit des Remparts. The first ever Circuit des Remparts took place in July 1939 and the circuit still follows the same course.

The second placed 1937 Austin Seven Pigsty Special of Simon Gallon.

Third place went to French driver Nicolas Komaroff in his 1938 Austin Seven Spéciale.

In fourth place was Simon Frost in his 1934 Austin Seven La Special.

In fifth place was Arnault Lagautriere in his 1929 Austin Seven.

First non-Austin home, in sixth place, was this lovely 1938 MG TA S driven by Stéphane Goy.

Rear view of the MG.

Other cars in this plateau included:

The 1921 GN Katipo of Louis McNair was very entertaining.

The 1935 Riley TT Sprite of Tammo Voight.

The 1927 Salmson GS8 of Michael Hudson.

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.

James Miles in his 1936 Austin Seven Single Seater.

The cockpit of Simon Frost's Austin Seven single seater.

1931 Austin Seven Ulster driven by Xavier Chapeyroux.

Marshals and drivers acknowledge each other.

Circuit des Remparts 2023 - Plateau Demonstration - Louis Rosier / 50's Sports Cars and Bugattis

My view for most of the day at Angoulême. You can this is real street circuit.

The first of the demostration plateau at the 2023 Circuit des Remparts was in honour of the great French driver Louis Rosier ans was mainly intended for 1950s sports cars and Bugattis. Louis Rosier won the 1949 Belgian GP, the 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans and a number of non-championship F1 races in the early fifties.

An interesting car in this plateau was the 1938 Lenkin GP car driven by Belgian driver Roger Troiani. I had never heard of this car before, let alone see it. It had the look of a home made special but it did indeed take part in a GP, the 1946 Grand Prix des Frontières at the Chimay circuit in 1946. Apparently, the car has a Ford chassis as it's base with an Austrian 6 cylinder Steyr motor with 3 Solex carburettors, a Rosengart gearbox, a body that was meant to resemble an Italian GP car and was named after the Belgian mechanic's grandfathers nickname. Driven by its constructor Désiré Boudart it finished fourth in the 1946 GP which incidentally was won by Leslie Brooks in an ERA. His wife hated motor racing so he never raced it again and it remained in a garage until the current owner bought it and restored it. It now has a BMW motor.

The 1938 Lenkin GP car.

As this was the Louis Rosier plateau, very nice to see Laurent Schneider in a 1935 Talbot T110C special that looks rather like the Talbot Lagos that Rosier raced.