Course de Côte de la Forêt Auvray, 2019

 A racing car driving through a Normandy village; the BRC 05 of Serge Clément.

This Normandy Hill at La Forêt Auvray was celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its first running in 1969 and assembled a very nice group of, modern, historic and demonstration cars to take to the hill on the occasion.  Fifty years ago the first winner was Jean-Claude Massoneri in a McLaren. Following that, some other well known hillclimbers have taken the win including rally driver Guy Frequelin (1974) , racing car constructor Yves Courage (1973, 1979 and 1980) and Hervé Bayard (1985).   When these drivers were attacking this hill it was 1,700m long but has been extended in recent years to a full 2 kilometres. Running from near the Orne river up the D21 public road to the village of Forêt Auvray it is a very challenging track for the drivers with a series of fast curves near the top.

John Page

One of the drivers, with whom I talked in the paddock, was John Page who has been hillclimbing longer than this hill has been in existence.  He started off his hillclimbing activity taking his Alvis up the famous Prescott Hill in England back in 1967. This was the year when Denny Hulme won the World Championship in a Brabham Repco.  The designer of that car, Ron Tauranac, set up Ralt in 1974 after selling his interest in Brabham to Bernie Ecclestone. In 1988 the Ralt RT32 was a strong contender in F3 and Gary Brabham took the car to second place in the British F3 Championship for Bowman Racing with late season wins at Oulton Park (the only time the Gold Cup was held for F3 cars), Brands Hatch, Thruxton and Silverstone.  He also took pole position at Spa Franchorchamps. This car now races up the hills of Normandy in the experienced hands of John Page. Always a pleasure to see them both, admire the Ralt and have a chat with John. He tells me he has no intention of stopping anytime yet.

John Page on his way down for a morning practice run in his 1988 Ralt RT32.

One car present that epitomizes the era of the seventies when the Course de Côte Forêt Auvray was still young is the Simca 1000 Rallye.  The Rallye 2 was launched in 1972 and the Rallye 3 at the end of 1977. Many were present and provided much of the spectacle.

Four Simca 1000 Rallye line up in the paddock.  However, there were another nine or more present!

A car that I love seeing on the French hills is the Grac MT14S which does not quite date back 50 years but is getting close as it is car that originates from 1973. Twelve were built for the Coupe Simca Shell of that year, a French sports car championship.  The winner that year was Max Mamers in a Grac and since he has become famous for being part of the organisation and founding of the Trophée Andros and Classic Days.  

The Grac MT14S of Jean-Yves Dorée came an excellent seventeenth.

The other Grac was racing in the VHC class driven by Christian Leguay..

One of the things you learn as you get older is to make the best of things.  A few things weren’t perfect last Sunday. Firstly, the hill is not a great one for spectators and especially photographers and it is difficult to get a really good view of the cars at speed.  Secondly, I was having trouble with my DSLR camera, probably the image stabilizer has stopped functioning; not an ideal situation for a hill where the only possibility is a head on shot on a very long lens.  The solution was to walk around the town from the paddock at the top of the hill to the start at the bottom and then back again and get pictures with my backup compact camera of the cars off-piste in the environment of this beautiful Normandy village.  In the end I was pleased with the results, which I hope you enjoy below:

Overall

Less than one second separated the top two runners with a F3 runner just beating a Norma Sportscar.   No body was as fast as last year, probably due to the oil spillages during the day. It was the second weekend running that Gaëtan was the winning driver – he is having a great year.

1st #3  Gaëtan Renouf – Dallara F300 – 52.591seconds

2nd  #14  Freddy Cadot – Norma M20F – 52.681seconds

Gaëtan Renouf took a close fought win in his Dallara.

Single Seaters D & E

1st  #3  Gaëtan Renouf – Dallara F300 – 52.591seconds

2nd #4  Anthony Gueudry – Martini Mk80-Opel – 54.518

3rd #79  Mathieu Vern – Dallara F301 – 55.642 

The winner Gaëtan Renouf in his Dallara.

The second placed single seater of Anthony Gueudry in his Martini.

Sports Racing Cars CN & CM

1st   #14  Freddy Cadot – Norma M20F – 52.681seconds

2nd  #15  Sébastien Tourillon – Norma M20FC – 54.216

3rd  #20  Francois-Xavier Thievant– Silvercar S2F évo – 55.456

Freddy Cadot came an excellent second in his Norma.

Second placed Sébastien Tourillon in his Norma.

Francois-Xavier Thievant did very well in his Silvercar.

Groupe FC 

1st   #44  Mathieu Nouet – Simca Rallye 3 – 59.251seconds

2nd  #48  Julien Français – Simca Rallye 3 – 60.432

3rd    #57  Romain Richardeau – Simca Rallye 3 – 60.441

Mathieu Nouet at the start in his winning Simca Rallye 3.

F2000

1st   #80  Christian Boullanger – Renault Clio RS – 63.249seconds

2nd  #64  Mathieu Moimeau – Renault Clio RS – 64.751

3rd    #75  Philippe Ollivard – Ciroën C2GT – 65.954

The second placed Renault Clio RS of Mathieu Moimeau.

Groupe A & FA

1st   #27  Michel Bineau – Nissan Almera – 63.277seconds

2nd  #26  Julien Dupont – Peugeot 308RC – 63.698

3rd    #34  Jacques Tkatchenko – Citroën Saxo VTS – 66.926

Michel Bineau won Group FA in his Nissan.

GTTS

1st   #23  Jean-Jacques Maurel – Peugeot RCZ Cup – 64.076seconds

2nd  #24  Fabrice Lorgnet – Peugeot RCZ Cup – 64.365

3rd    #22  André Heinrich – BMW M3 silhouhette – 69.505

The winning Peugeot RCZ Cup of Jean-Jacques Maurel.

Groupe N & FN

1st   #39  Ferdinand Loton – Honda Civic Type R – 64.558seconds

2nd  #40  Jonathan Gasnier – Renault Clio RS – 68.175

3rd    #38  Stéphane Pacate – Subaru WRX – 68.430

The second placed Renault Clio.

VHC – Historic Competition Vehicles

1st   #97  Rodolphe Jacquette – Porsche 911S – 71.785seconds

2nd  #95  Bruno Evrard – Alpine Renault A110 – 72.297

3rd    #98  Alain Marie  - Alpine Renault A110 – 76.256

The winning Porsche 911 of Rodolphe Jacquette followed by an Alpine A110.

Bruno Evrard's Alpine Renault A110.

The third placed Alpine Renault of Alain Marie.

Paddock

Peugeot 205 GTi in the paddock.

Changing the wheels on the Norma of Sébastien Tourillon in the paddock.

The two Johns get the Ralt RT32 ready for a run.

Leaving the Paddock

John Nicol having his Norma M20B from the paddock into the town.

The Dallara F301 of Mathieu Vern.

Town

A Dallara F300 in the town.

Simca Rallye 2.

A long queue of racing cars waits in the town in order to go down to the start.

A Ford Escort RS2000 in the VHC section driving through the town

Downhill

A BRC 05 and other cars wait on the way downhill for their turn.

The same BRC 05 with cars queuing up behind it.

SEAT Ibiza.

Start

Arriving at the start.  We are behind a Scora Maxi.

A Citroën C2 leaves the start line.

Just after the start.

Climbing the Hill

A Simca towards the bottom of the hill.

Jérôme Poyer in his Tatuus FR2000 comes into the view of the main spectator area.

Just after the Finish

A Honda Integra just after the finish of the hill.

Returning to the Paddock

Jean-Claude Thirault's Scora Maxi..

Olivier Besnier in his Reynard 873.  He won the class for the older F3 cars.

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.

A Renault Dauphine Proto which didn't complete a run.