Orléans, 23rd of April
After the prelude in the Grand Palais yesterday the 250 teams of
this year's Tour Auto finally took the road through France in what
is supposed to be a thrilling week.
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Early in the morning at 6:15 am the first car left Paris centre
towards the official start at Chateau de Dampierre with a
neutralized stage out of the French Capital. Although the last
group of the day (the second regularity) was intended to start at
10:00 am all the cars left Paris very early to avoid the daily traffic
jam. With plenty of time at the Chateau a breakfast was served to
strengthen for a very long day. The cars were lined up at the lake
behind the castle with hundreds of people waiting at the front
entrance to see them leaving one by one.
Today's leg led west into the direction of Le Mans to have the first
race meeting on the small Bugatti Circuit after a first special
stage at Beaufay.
The races at Le Mans saw the usual suspects running in front of
their grids, the first competition class was again dominated by a
couple of Alfa Romeo GTA with von Wildenburg/Hahne being
fastest again. The next grid saw the expected battle between the
Ford GT40 and the numerous AC Cobras followed by the Jaguar
E-Types. At the end two GT40 were leading followed by the AC
Cobra Daytona Coupé. The last competition group was mixed up
by another GT40, several Porsche 906 and 910 and a very fast
Lancia Stratos, a car that might even have more potential on the
narrow special stages.
After the competition classes the regularity classes had their
track time but due to a delay in the previous grids they were
running quite late, with a tightly organized time table the convoy
was not able to catch up the lost time so the way down south to
Orleans was a race against sunset. Although the last car was
intended to arrive at 9:15 pm the higher regularity numbers came
in well after 10 pm giving the crews a very long day. But the night
will be short again as tomorrow the longest stage of this year's
Tour Auto is on the program leading over 500 km south via the
French GP Circuit in Magny Cours to finally arrive at Vichy again
late in the evening. Whereas today's lunch was served at the
Circuit tomorrows lunch break will be at Chateau de Bannegon,
one of the highlights of the day. Although parking and the arrival
and departure from the country side castles is always difficult
these lunch breaks are preferred by most of the participants over
the track side stops as this adds very much to the special charm
of the Tour Auto. Again a lot of locals will stand aside the road to
welcome the convoy in their home town waving as the cars blast
by through the small villages and country roads. The weather is
also expected to be sunny and dry just as this afternoon after
some clouds and some drizzle in the morning.
Report & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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