Tuesday 17th of April, Paris - Beaune
After yesterday´s scrutineering the Tour Auto started officially this
morning at the Chateau in Vaux le Vicomte. Early in the morning
(6:30 am) the cars left the Grand Palais on a neutralized stage to
Vaux le Vicomte to have their start in the chateau as Parisian
traffic is to unpredictable to include this in a timed stage.
The sun was still hiding behind the clouds when hundreds of
spectators waved the first cars off to take the first miles of this
years Tour Auto. After a connection stage over the freeway soon
the first special stage was on the program giving the teams a
good start in the daily competition.
The route led than through the Bourgogne with the typical yellow
rape fields to the lunch stop at the Chateau de Thenissey to take
a refreshment before the first track adventure at Dijon.
The races looked very similar to last years races with the Alfa
Romeo GTAs leading the first competition class, the Cobras
and GT40s the second and the Ligier the third. Unfortunately
the second race was flagged off red after an offroad excursion of
one of the drivers but the other two races stayed without any
incidents.
With practice and race of three competition classes and the two
regularity classes running behind them the track excursion
became a long chapter of the day with the last cars leaving Dijon
after 7:30 pm for another hour of driving. The last cars arrived well
after 9:00 pm making this a long day to start with. Most of the
competitors are repeaters and know what to expect but for those
doing the Tour Auto for the first time it became clear today that
the next days will be very long and exhausting.
The second stage tomorrow will start at 7:00 am leading the tour
from Beaune to the circuit de Bresse for the daily race and after
two more special stages the cars will arrive between 6:30 pm and
10 pm in Aix les Bains. The first cars to start are the competition
classes again with the regularity to follow but later that week the
two groups will change the starting order to get the regularity in
front of the field.
Report & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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