2019 Dijon Motors Cup! NKHTGT

The battle for the lead - 6.2 litre Chevrolet Corvette vs 2 litre Lotus Elan.  

The NK HTGT is a Dutch Historic series for GT and Touring Cars from 1947 to 1965 that races in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France. It contains a nice variety of historic GT and Touring cars and occasionally has some more exotic machinery such as Ford GT40s or Ferrari 250 LMs.  The race at Dijon was of 40 minutes plus 1 lap duration and was hard fought even to the last corner.  As the cars race on low grip tyres the racing can be quite spectacular.  Most of the top cars can be seen below including the Corvette Grand Sports powered by their massive 6.2 litre Chevrolet engines.  I saw the race on Saturday just after lunch and it was a track that was damp in places but drying after the  earlier rain.

The winning 1963 Chevrolet Corvette of Michiel Campagne leads the 1964 Ford Falcon of Bijeveld & Van.

Eventually second place went to the 1965 Lotus Elan of Alexander Schlüchter, seen here lapping the fifth placed Porsche late in the race.

Bob Stevens in a 1965 Lotus led the other Elans until late in the race when he tried to overtake the lead Corvette and lost it in the process.

The 1964 Ford Falcon eventually fell back to fourth but here is seen leading the Elans.

Dijon was the final round of the series and Erwin Van Lieshout took the championship in his Porsche 911.

The Norbert Gross 1964 4.7 litre Ford falcon finished sixth.

Seventh was this 1965 Lotus Elan S2 of Jos Stevens.

Frans Van Maarschalkerwaart in the Shelby Mustang GT350 finished eighth.

The pole position 1961 Jaguar E-Type driven by Sauter/Newall eventually fell back but recovered to ninth.  here it overtakes the eleventh placed 1965 Lotus Cortina of René Wallner.

Rob Rappenge in a 1965 Mini Cooper came tenth.

Nigel Winchester in his 1 litre 1964 Ginetta G4 beat many larger capacity cars

The 1965 Ford GT40 of Georg Nolte took part on the warm up lap but didn't start.

1959 Porsche 356A leads Austin Healey and Ford Falcon.

This 1964 Chevrolet Corvette was fast but retired.

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.

Lotus Cortina leads two MGs, a Mini cooper and a Ginetta.

Kaj Dahlbacka and team preparing the Corvette Grand Sport 

Paddock action for the 1959 Austin Healey 3000 Mk1 of Huib Mars.

The 1964 Ginetta G4 of Nigel Winchester has its wheels changed.

The other Ginetta G4, that of Brian Lambert, on the pre-grid.