Vichy, 24th of April
After the first leg yesterday from Paris to Orléans the second and
longest of the 5 days led today from Orléans south to Vichy. The
day was dominated by 3 castle visits in the morning and the race
at the French Grand Prix Circuit in Magny Cours, representative
folly on one side and modern functionality on the other.
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The first castle to visit in the morning was the biggest and maybe
most famous of the chateau in the Loire Valley - Chambord. The
hunting lodge built in the 16th century might be one of the most
photographed castles in the world and many of the passing TA
entrants took the opportunity to take a picture of their car in front
of it. Chambord is a superb location for classic cars as one could
see at last year's Ferrari 250 GTO Tour when the cars were
parked in front of the main entrance.
Not far from Chambord was the second castle visit of the day,
Chateau Cheverny. Smaller and not built for the royal family this
baroque Castle is still in family ownership and has a nicely
trimmed park.
After a special stage in the late morning the convoy had to do
some mileage so the way led partially over the nearby motorway
to the direction of Nevers, home of the Magny Cours Circuit.
Over small country roads the journey led to the lunch break,
another Chateau dating from the 12th century. Compared to the
representative buildings in the later years this era saw the castles
built as a fortress with water ditch and towing bridge. Most of the
cars were parked on the outside of the building but a few of the
later arriving regularity class took the narrow bridge to park in the
bailey.
Strengthened by the lunch the races of the day at Magny Cours
were 8 Lap races in every group on the modern circuit. The
results were very much the same as the day before with the
GTAs running well in front in Plateau 3, the Ford GT40 in Plateau
4 and Porsche strong in the Plateau 5. But not all frontrunners
made it to the finish line as the material is stressed both on the
track and the bumpy roads, the Cobra Daytona Coupe was rolling
out on its second to last lap and was later missed in the Parc
Fermé so a further participation on the following days might be
doubtful. Others needed some major work in the evening or even
roadside to be back in the race, with a time limitation for the
mechanics to work on the car without penalty some had to
abandon their hope for a good classification. Especially the
breaks, the clutch and the suspension are used very hard on the
open road, on one of the Ferrari 250 GT SWB the entire back axle
was changed in the evening giving the mechanics a short night as
they were still working when the last cars of the regularity class
arrived from the last special stage of the day well after 10:00 pm.
The third leg tomorrow will lead further south to Albi. Unlike the
previous days the race meeting will not be during the day but at
the end of the stage as the Circuit is also the bivouac.
Report & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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