Dijon-Mulhouse, 8th of April, 2014
The second day started early in the morning with the competition
classes leaving the parc fermé in Dijon for the 402 kilometres to
Mulhouse with two special stages and the second race of the
week at Anneau de Rhin.
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After a short stint on the motorway the first special stage was
held just after the first hour so the competitors had to be awake
from the first minute to keep up their chances in the
classification. After the close results of the first day with 10 cars
within a minute every second on the twisty special stages
counted and none of the favourites did show any weakness. For
some reason the start of this stage was delayed as the tour was
running well behind the time schedule for the rest of the day. Also
very unlikely for the normal tour the cars were driving far apart,
sometimes several minutes no car was coming by and some of
the spectators along the road lost overview which cars already
came by and which ones were still missing.
As mentioned yesterday the landscape did change over the day
and after a few more rape fields in the morning the scenery
became more rustic before entering the vineyard near Mulhouse in
the afternoon. After a second special stage in Remiremont in the
late morning the tour led towards the lunch break at Chateau de
Hollandsbourg. The first cars of the competition category were
expected there at about 1:15 pm and the last regularities at about
4:15 pm but with all the delays of the morning some of the later
cars did pass the lunch place as it was already 6 pm.
Unfortunately they missed the splendid overview from the top of
the castle that was the location of the buffet lunch. With limited
parking space the competitors were driven hilltop by shuttle
buses to enjoy the foresight into the region on a sunny day. After
the way down the hill the final stop was at the race track of
Anneau du Rhin. Unlike Dijon the day before this is a rather small
circuit without the usual security fences giving this race a more
historic character although the competition was not less serious
as on this early stage of the Tour Auto no one could administrate
his position as things change quit fast, technical problems or
overnight repairs leading to penalties could change the leader
board every day.
In the overall classification the first ten places are all held by
Cobra or E-Type drivers, the leading team Caron/Villaucourt could
extend their lead from 29 seconds the day before to almost one
minute followed by the first of the very fast Jaguar E-types of
Lajournade/Bouchet.
In the regularity class the result is even closer with the first three
teams within 3 seconds.
Tomorrow will be the third leg from Mulhouse to Aix les Bains,
with 475 km this will also be the longest stage of this year’s Tour
Auto. Again two special stages will be driven, this time one before
and one after the lunch break. Finally the competition part of the
day will be concluded again with a race on the circuit, this time in
Bresse but as this will be earlier the regularity class might be see
some sun on the track as well. After another 2:30 hours’ drive the
last cars will arrive at about 10 pm at the parc fermé making this
their shortest night rest as on Friday the regularity classes have
to start first.
Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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