Touring France's old road racing circuits after Classic Le Mans 2023

[JohnD]

I hope that everyone has noted that although CLM is normally held alternate years, on those with an even number, this year there is a special one to mark the 100th anniversary of the first Quatre-Vingt Heures de Le Mans in 1923.    You may be lucky and still find a space at Tertres Rouge by contacting the Clun Office.     I won't be at TR, but at Houx with the Talbot Team.

France, like other European nations, never had the ban on motor racing on public roads that the UK has had for just as long.  This led to Brooklands, the first purpose built circuit in the world, and the preponderance of old airfield perimeter roads as circuits in the UK.     In France, only at Le Mans and Angouleme does racing still occur on public roads, but the old circuits are still there. You can drive them and relive the Old Days!   Reims, with its original grandstands and pits stands out, but after CLM is over I intend to  visit Remparts at Angouleme and Charade at Clermont-Ferrands as well as returning to Reims via Dijon-Prenois .  If anyone would like to come along, I'll be delighted!

Just PM me to arrange a rendez-vous!

John

[Chris A]

You posted this on 'the other site', quite rightly.

Same comments as there:

1 hour ago, JohnD said:

the 100th anniversary of the first Quatre-Vingt Heures de Le Mans in 1923

Back then it might have felt as if it lasted 80 hours but it was only 24 😉 There was also an old circuit near Rouen that used public roads. Modern road improvements does still mean that a part of the old circuit is still a public road. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_de_Rouen-les-Essarts

[JohnD]

Indeed,, Chris!  Rouen-les-Essarts is another old road racing circuit, most famous for killing Jo Schlesser, burnt to death in the '68 French GP in an all-magnesium Honda that John Surtees, the works driver refused to get it into.   I shall be popping in again on my way to CLM, but I thought others might like to explore some other circuits, so I've posted on several Triumph-based sites.

Its easy to drive the most interesting part, of the old course, and return via Chemin de l'Etoile, an old foresters' track, now paved.   See: 

 

When I first visited, the old course south of the Autoroute was blocked  by some earth berms, but Binman my Chief Mechanic got over them and along the route in his 4X4.   But be warned - the original entry to the pits/paddock was a small layby, but today it is blocked by stout bollards.   Another layby a hundred metres up the hill has been built and allows us to stop and pay homage.    The paddock is now a storage yard for timber.

I wrote about my visit in 2022 on Sideways: En Route a Les Vingt-Quatre Heures Classique - Events and Motorsports - Sideways Technologies (sideways-technologies.co.uk) 

John

Edited April 20, 2023 by JohnD

[Chris A]

See reply on 'the other site'