61ème Course de Côte du Mont Dore / Chambon-sur-Lac, Groupe A Touring Cars

Jean-Sébastien Fel in a Groupe A Peugeot 308 Cup towards the top of the climb on his way to ninth.

 Featured in this post from the 2021 Course de Côte du Mont Dore are the Group A Touring Cars.   These cars are the fastest touring cars on the hills of France.  The winning car achieved a time of 5 minutes 37 seconds which is not too far off the 5 minutes 13 seconds achieved by the exotic Audi R8 which won the GTTS group.   All the top ten in this Group are shown here with photos from the wet Saturday runs.

The winner of Groupe A was Stéphane Auriacombe in a Peugeot 308 Cup.  He was also 6th overall amongst all the Production based cars bearting many GTTS and GT cars.

Second in Groupe A was Jérôme Janny in a Seat Leon Supacopa Mk2.

Third in Groupe A was Stéphane Garcia in a Peugeot 308 Racing Cup.

Fourth was Jean-Pierre Pope in a Peugeot 308 Cup.

Nearing the top of Mont Dore is Manuel Brunet in a Peugeot 308 Cup.  He came 5th.

Geoffroy Bouhin splashes his way up the hill to sixth  in a Seat Leon Supacopa Mk2.

The 7th placed Seat Leon Supacopa Mk3 of Sarah Bernard.

The Seat Leon Supacopa Mk2 of Thierry Tierce.  He was 8th in the group.

The tenth placed Seat Leon Supacopa Mk2 of Nicolas Granier.

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 Nissan Almera of Michel Bineau.

The Renault Clio Cup of Jessy Schenk.

The Renault Clio Cup of Cyril Derre.

2020 Course de Côte du Mont Dore - Group A / FA Touring Cars

Noel Joubert in his Renault Megane DCi FA/4.

The Groupe A and FA are the fastest group of modern touring cars that compere in French hillclimbing.  The are allowed more modifications that Group N.  The Group A cars are those that are currently homologated whereas the FA cars are similar but are no longer homologated.   Cars such as the Seat Leon Super Copa cars are surprisingly quick and are as quick as some of the GT cars.  The classes depend on cubic capacity with the lower numbers being the smaller capacity cars.  Any positions in group or class are from the Saturday runs (August 8th, 2020)  when I was photographing these cars.  On the tricky 5.075 kilometre course at Mont-Dore Chamon-sur-Lac the fastest Group A Touring Car car recorded a time of just under 2 minutes 49 seconds on Saturday!  This was less than 12 seconds slower than the McLaren MP4 12C that won the GTTS class.

The winner of Groupe A/FA on Saturday was Francis Dosieres in a Seat leon Super Copa Mk3.  A/5.

The Renault Clio 4 Cup of Stephane Auriacombe was winner of class A/4.

Nicolas Granier in his Renault 4 Cup. A/4.

The Seat Leon Super Copa Mk3 of Abel Sahoui.. A/5.

The Peugeot 206 RC of Bastien Combelle.  FA/3.

Antoine Uny and his Seat Leon Super Copa Mk2 was runner up in the group and class A/5.

The Renault Clio 3 Cup of Philibert Michy.  A/3.

The Renault Clio 3 Cup of Maxence Passaquet.  A/3.

Bruno Milliet in a Renault Clio 4 Cup.  A/4.

The Renault Clio 4 Cup of Vivien Tonon. A/4.

Simon Richard and his Peugeot 308 Cup.  A/4.

The Peugeot 206 S16 of Patrick Marchal.  A/3.

Elodie Lafosse and her Peugeot 106 winner of FA/1.

A light touch with the barrier for the Seat Leon Super Copa of Alain Perraud.  A/5.

The Renault Clio 2 Cup of Maxime Dojat won class A/3.

Michel Bineau in his Nissan Almera.  A/3.

The Renault Clio 3 Cup of Jimmy Erhmann.  A/3.

Michel Burgunder and his Seat Leon Super Copa.  A/5.

The Renault Clio 2 Cup of Nicolas Vidon.  A/3.

Jerome Janny and his Seat Leon Super Copa was third in the group and class A/5.

The Renault Clio 3 Cup of Philibert Michy.  A/3.

Thibault Moncomble and his Peugeot Saxo VTA won class FA 2.

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.

Maxime Chebbak in his Renault Clio 4 Cup with the mountain backdrop.  A/4.

The Renault 4 Cup of Thierry Tierce.  A4.

Jean-Pierre Pope in his Renault Clio 3 Cup.  A/3.