Friday, 20th of April, 2012
Today´s leg led from Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne to Nimes
in the departement Gard. Early in the morning the weather
forecast of the last days looked finally to become true as heavy
clouds made one to expect a rainy day but this years Tour Auto
seems to be very blessed as these clouds rarely bursted along
the way so the stage was almost dry again. Just a few rain drops
fell during the day but being almost more sleet than rain indicates
the temperatures especially on the hill stages. In the afternoon
one became aware that the journey leads southward as
temperatures became a little bit more comfortable.
This year's Tour Auto has a lot of mileage in the hills and the
small twisted roads sometimes stretch both drivers and cars to
the limit as one can see by the taped fenders on several cars.
The service time in the parc ferme is extensively used by some
mechanics to get the cars back on the road for the next day and
one could see a lot of suspension and brake work being done by
them. As mentioned before the hill stages with their start uphill
are also demanding to the clutches and the feel of the drivers feet
on the pedals.
With three timed special stages and a special trial at the circuit
Pole Mechanique d´Ales the day was more fluent then the days
with the track races without the long stops. The lunch was served
hilltop on the road rather than the usual chateau visit so this
meant no detour either and the finish was reached by the last
cars before 9 am today. Nevertheless the week becomes
debilitating with an average length of more than 400 km and the
last day will be no exception. Unlike two years ago when the Tour
Auto finished at the Cote d´Azur as well the last stage will be a
full leg with more than 400 km again plus the visit to the Circuit
Paul Ricard in Le Castelet. This track is completely different from
the track in Bresse or Charade being a modern race track with
the latest safety specification that is also used by race series like
the FIA GT. Tomorrow evening the Tour will come to an end at
Nice.
The competition class overall is still led by Shaun Lynn in his AC
Cobra and we will see whether he could get this result to the
finish.
Report & images: Peter Singhof ...
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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