Pau Classic Grand Prix 2023, Endurance Pre-1966

A Lotus 23B negotiates Pont Oscar in Sunday's race.

 The Pre-66 Endurance racers provided a nice amount of variety and spectacle and also some close racing at the 2023 Pau Classic Grand Prix.  This post will give you some idea of the variety of cars racing around the famous Pau street circuit where an error often means a visit into the barriers.  There was a 45 minute race on both Saturday and Sunday with quite different podiums.

The first corner on the first lap in Saturday's race.  AC Cobra leads Lotus 7, Lotus Elan and a Crossle 7S.

Sunday's race and two Alfas lead a varied group.

This Lotus Seven driven by Florent Cazalot won Saturday's race and here overtakes the Cobra for the lead.

Damien Kohler was fast in the AC Cobra but his best result of the weekend was second on Saturday.

This Lotus Elan 26R was the most consistent car of the weekend and finished third on Saturday and won Sunday's race.  He he is fighting off the Lotus Seven.  The driver of the Lotus Elan was none other than well known Japanese Historic driver Katsu Kubota.

This Crossle 7S driven by the Reys finished second in Sunday's race.

This nicely turned on Ford Anglia (in Alan Mann colours) driven by Greg Carini finished third on Sunday.

This Alfa Romeo Ti Super was first in Category 3 on Saturday.

This Lotus Cortina won Category 4 on Saturday driven by Jérôme Quiot.

This Porsche 911 driven by Vincent Tourneur won Category 4 on Sunday.

This Sunbeam Tiger driven by Jéröme Servies won Category 5 on Saturday.

This Alfa Romeo GTA driven by Japanese drivers Fujita and Enami won Category 5 on Sunday.

This Marcos 1800 GT won Saturday's Category 6 driven by Personnaz and Julien.

Gibbons and Ando took Category 7 on Saturday in this Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA.

This Reliant Sabre of Adam Schlesinger won Category 8 on Saturday.

This Lotus Cortina won Category 8 on Sunday driven by Luis Sousa Ribeiro.

An Austin Mini Cooper S slides through Parc Beaumont driven by Adrien Harang.

Richard Hywel Evans in an Austin Healey 3000.

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.

Preparation in the paddock for this Alfa Romeo Giulia SS.

A Jaguar E-Type in practice.  It didn't race.

Alfa Romeos race past the Pau scenery.

Lotus Eleven.

Groupes N / GT - Nogaro - Coupe de France des Circuits - 2023

Groupe N BMWs battle it out with the GT cars.  Benoit Belouin leads this group in his BMW E36

       that eventually finished third in Group N.

 The Group N cars and GT cars run together as there are not enough of them to justify two races   However they did provide good entertainment and I got some different pictures as I was at the opposite     end of the circuit for this race.

The start of the race seen from the far end of the circuit at the top of the stands.

Three Porsches in the lead on the first lap.

Some variety down the field with a Chevrolet Corvette C6 leading a Volkswagen Golf TCR driven by Francois Chotard who finished fifth in the GT class.

Eventual winner was Michel Nourry in this Porsche 997 R.

Second was Roland Chotard in this Porsche 991 GT3 Cup 2.

Third was Jacques Caumes in this Porsche 997 GT3 R.

The Corvette of Thomas Favaille finished fourth.

The first of the Groupe N cars was the No.34 BMW M3 E36 driven by Olivier Gillard and the second was BMW M3 No.5 driven by Laurent Sylvestre.

A close battle between two of the GT Groupe cars.  The Mini Challenge R53 JCW finished ninth overall but the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup didn't finish.

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.

Top non-BMW in Groupe N was this Renault Megane 3 RS N4 driven by Julien Thibault.

Groupe GT and N competitors go under the Dunlop Bridge that leads from the old pits to the VIP enclosure.

Tour Auto 2022, Compétition Indice de Performance

The winner of the Indice de Performance on this year's Tour Auto was this 1954 1,500cc Porsche.

This blog post includes another thirty plus cars not featured in my VHC, Group G or Group H-I posts.  Many represent the older and lower cubic capacity cars that do well on the Index of performance in the Tour Auto.  The photos were mainly taken on special stage EC8 near Puisseguin or during the races at Circuit Val de Vienne.

In the Index of Performance each car is given a coefficient depending on its cubic capacity and its age and then this is multiplied by the times set on each stage to determine the classification.

The Top Ten Cars in this years Tour Auto Index of Performance were:

1st.  Jean-Michel VILLOT / Sébastien VILLOT, Porsche 356 (Pre-A) 1500 coupé 1954 (158)

 2nd.  Gilles COURAUDON / Marielle COURAUDON, Porsche 356 (pré-A) 1500 S Coupé 1954 (170)

3rd.  Carlos DE MIGUEL / Luis DELSO, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint 1961 (178)

4th.  Jacky LAGUERRE / Adrien LAGUERRE, D.B HBR5 1958 (151)

5th.  Pierre MACCHI / Isabelle MARTROU, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale 1300 1961 (177)

6th.  Jean-Yves BEAUPIGNY / Géraud DUNESME, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce 1961 (179)

7th.  Claude CASSINA / Tomy GRUELLES, Austin Mini Cooper S 1275 1964 (191)

8th.  Raphaël FAVARO / Thomas DE SAULIEU, Lotus Elan 26R 1965 (211)

9th.  Ivan VERCOUTERE / Alex MÜLLER, Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA 1965 (247)

10th.  Germain Aunidas / Zoran BARNJAK, MG A 1600 1960 (172)

Other top fifty Index of Performance cars not featured in my other posts:

161 - Georges ROCCHIETTA / Frederic LORENZI, 1966 Austin Mini Cooper S 1275

175 - Laurent PAULUS / Elisabeth PAULUS, 1954 Austin-Healey 100-4 

180 - Thierry LAFONT / Sydney BEYNAT, 1964 Ford Cortina Lotus

198 - José DA ROCHA / Jean-Claude HECTOR, 1960 Jaguar Mk 2 3.8

192 - Philippe BRESSON / Philippe LANTERNIER, 1956 Austin-Healey 100-4

226 - Luc-Pierre VERQUIN / Guy DUPONT, 1965 Porsche 911 2,0L

237 - Rémi TERRAIL / Eric ZUCCATTI, 1965 Porsche 911 2,0L

219 - Oliver BRYANT / Grahame BRYANT, 1965 Porsche 911 2,0L 

159 - Jean-Pierre GAGICK / Laetitia GAGICK, 1965 Morris Mini Cooper S 1275

186 - Baptiste GUYOT-SIONNEST / Mathieu GUYOT-SIONNEST, 1965 Ford Mustang 289

153 - Bruno SCHOCH / Romain LENORMAND, 1956 Austin-Healey 100 M 'Le Mans' 

167 - Thierry ROGEON / Bruno MILLET, 1965 Morgan Plus 4 Super Sports

169 - Stéphane COLLAS / Jules COLLAS, 1965 MG B 

224 - Alexis FALCON / Marc-Antoine FALCON, 1965 Porsche 911 2,0L

 

197 - Fabrice BOURGEOIS / Ombeline DE CLERMONT-TONNERRE, 1962 Lancia Flaminia Sport Zagato

248 - Etienne MICHELEZ / Thibault CLEBANT, 1965 Lotus Elan 26R

196 - Pierre NOVIKOFF / Matthieu LAMOURE, 1973 Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV

278 - Frédéric FOURGEAUD / Christophe AYGON, 1975 Ford Escort I RS 1600

Other cars I enjoyed seeing on the Tour Auto that show the variety of cars entered:

152 - Simon DUCHASSIN / Guillaume CONTI, 1959 AC Ace Bristol

154 - Yann GRAU / Nicolas GAND, 1963 Fiat 2300 S Coupé

188 - Jean-louis FOURNIER / Angélique FOURNIER, 1972 BMW 3.0 CSi

162 - François ZENNER / Véronique ZENNER, 1955 Triumph TR2

176 - Antoine BLANC / Didier VEST, 1961 Lotus Elite

250 - Pascal SILIO / Alex SILIO, BMW 3,0 CSL

195 - SEGOLEN / Quynh PHAM, 1975 Renault 12 Gordini

256 - Didier MENNECHET / Christopher BROUESSE, 1971 Porsche 914/6 GT

290 - Gérard BESSON / Bruno MAINGUET, 1979 Alpine A310 V6 Gr.IV

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.

Regularity Cars:

I didn't get time to see the regularity cars this year, which was a shame as I love the very special cars that this section always has.  Here is one that I caught in Coulonges-sur-l'Atize.

A 1953 Panhard Dyna X87 running in the Regularity section of the rally.