Course de Côte Régionale d'Etretat-Bénouville Moderne 2018

Maxime Bertrand in his Alpine A110 during his second ascent of the hill.

Motor sport has a terrible habit of reminding us from time to time that it is dangerous.  Sunday at the annual Etretat-Benouville hillclimb was one of those times.  Somehow a Renault Megane, making its second ascent of the hill, got the wrong side of the crash barriers and collided with a female marshal.  It was a terrible accident to see but the latest news is that she is out of life-threatening danger.  This obviously led to an early end to the event and as many vehicles made only one ascent, the results are irrelevant.  We all hope that the marshal makes the best possible recovery.

Below are a few pictures of the cars present on Sunday.

Bertrand Lasalle in his Dallara F307 after making the fastest of the initial runs.

Christophe Maurouard in a Peugeot 205 on the hillclimb course with Etretat as the backdrop.

Englishman John Page was present as usual in his Ralt F3.

Thomas Durand and his Peugeot 106 XSi

Fabien Ponchant and his Dallara F302.

Frederic Brot in the unusual Minarti KM02.

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. 

Queue of cars waiting to make their descent from the paddock to the start.

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.

32 ème Course de Côte Régionale de Lormes, 2017

David Alexandre in his Ligier JS51 attacks the hill.  He finished fifth in class and 12th overall.

What I love, more perhaps than the cars or motor sport itself, is the atmosphere that certain motor sport venues have.  This year, on my first visit to the Course de Cotes de Lormes, I found a very friendly and welcoming atmosphere.  This atmosphere is helped by the very beautiful surrounding countryside of the Morvan, a very special part of Burgundy.  It is helped by the smiles at the gate, plenty of bar facilities and the excellent accessibility this particular hillclimb has.  Entrance was free and an excellent programme was on sale for one Euro.  The excellent organisers are Ecurie Morvan des Lacs.  The hillclimb was a round of the Coupe de France de la Montagne.

The course itself is of just under two kilometres of which spectators can see about 90% and which squeezes fourteen corners into its length.  It climbs up through a forest but there is enough light to get good photos.  You are very close to the track most of the time and thus I found my 70-300 zoom rather extreme!

This was the 32nd running of this hillclimb.  Previous winners have included Geofrey and Nicolas Schatz.  Another many time previous winner has been Serge Thomas who won for the first time here back in 1985.  He was to go on to win again in 2017 after his main competitor crashed out on his second run.

I attended the free practice on Saturday afternoon.  Here are some of the runners arranged by group.

Group E Single Seaters
Single Seaters in regional French Hill Climbs comprise mainly old F3 and Formula Renault cars with a few motor cycle engined single seaters thrown in.

Gael Boisson was very fast in his F3 Dallara F307 and won his class and came second overall despite just completing one run.  He crashed out in the second run.

Gael Boisson awaiting another run up the hill during Saturday practice.

The F3 Dallara 399 of Olivier Gregoire who finished ninth overall and second in the class

Fastest lady driver was Stéphanie Tordeux in a Tatuus FR2000.  She came 19th overall and won her class.

Franck Alloin in his Mygale-Susuki was 3rd in the 1300cc Single Seater class and 14th overall.  

The class winning Martini Mk76 of the Chatelain brothers.

The Ligier JS47 that came second in class driven by Jean-Pierre Bouchard.

Another picture of the F3 Dallara 399 of Olivier Gregoire.

Reynald Aimé in his Dallara F301

Stéphanie Tordeux being wheeled to the start in her Formula Renault Tatuus.

David Mayeur's Martini Mk 62 awaiting for the start with his mechanic by the side.  He finished first in class.

Martini Mk76 being worked on in the paddock.

Group CN Prototypes
The CN Prototypes are often the fastest class at many hillclimbs, sometime challenged by the F3 cars.

David Alexandre's Ligier JS51 leaves the line at the bottom of the hill.

The Norma M20F of Pascal Paire just after the start.

The Noma M20B of William Pommery.

This is the third placed overall Norma M20F of Sébastien Godot.  He was second in class. 

Sébastien Godot waiting for another run on Saturday.

Eric Bernhard in a PHC Dinatmo.

Eric Bernard in his PHC Dinatmo.  He was first in class.

This is the rear of Serge Thomas's winning Norma M20FC

CM - Motorcycle engined Sports Cars

Florian Serralta in his BRC Evo 05 at the start.  He was to win the CM class.

Franck Gregoire in his Speedcar GTR that finished third in class.

Group N - Standard Production Touring Cars
Group N is for standard production touring cars of which more than 5,000 have been produced in one year.

The Renualt Clio Ragnotti of Sylvestre Pigenet.  He was first in his class.

Group N Peugeot 106 S16

Group A - Modified Touring Cars
These are Group N Touring cars with limited modifications to engines, gearboxes and suspension and lightened bodies.

The Renault Clio RS 2 Cup of Thomas Chavot that won its class and came second in Grp A.

The winner of Group A was Richard Prat in this Seat Leon Super Copa.

Group FC - Pre July 2005 Touring Cars
Group FC always tends to be dominated by old rear engined Simcas but you also see Renaults and other makes occasionally.

The winner of Group C was Patrice Chapat in his Simca Rallye II 16S.

The beautigul Simca CG of Pascal Simonet.  He was second in the Group FC and won his class.

The Simca Rallye II of Charles Guizzon passes a marshall post half way up the hill.  He was classified last.

This Renault R5 TDC of the Denisets didn't record an official time on Sunday.

GTTS - GT & Tourisme Spéciales.
This category caters for GT Cup cars, GT Plus cars, Silhouette Touring cars, Mitjets, Supercars, WRC, DTM cars and other similar categories.

Claude Underwald in his Mitjet Light finished second in the GTTS group.

GT Cars
This caters for series GT cars.  At Lormes it was just one Cateram Seven shared by two drivers.

The Cateram Seven of Claude Saint-Germain.

F2000 Touring Cars
This catergory is for older Touring Cars that have previous been homologated in Groups N,A, FN or FA.

F2000 Peugeot 306 S16 at the start line driven by Nicolas Logar.

Citroen Xsara VTS driven by Olivier Cunier

For photos of all the cars from the 2017 Course de Cote de Sancerre, 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.