H. F.

Well, for me it really started at the franco swiss border where a remarkably suspicious douanier went as far as plunging into my dirty laundry (fantasy of his?)! The Iron Wall having fallen, I assume the French try hard to recreate the ambiance in their lovely country...

And lovely it is! Across Jura towards Dijon on wonderful forgotten B roads in an (not so) old car, one cannot help but forget the douanier...

Signing on and scrutineering went like a breeze (but why is it we have to beg for passes?) after some free (?) practice to reacquaint oneself with this lovely circuit that suits older cars so well... It goes up and down in challenging curves so different from the abrupt turns and chicanes that disfigure modern formula tracks.

Both my Alfas seemed to enjoy it as much as me as they both have such well balanced handling... The TZ is an interesting case for me: I am a slow learner and it is only now I feel more comfortable with cars whose road-holding far outperforms their power, it being a matter of carrying momentum through turns!.. Now the Monza is more of a brake, turn, point and hammer sort of car (intellectually so much easier to do!) yet it also is very predictable with its torquey engine so far behind the front wheels.

So, after some (very!) interesting meals, Adrian Stoop, my faithful co-driver, and I were ready to tackle timed practice for the pre-war Legends race. He first took the wheel as he had not been around before and looked the part, as seen from the pit-wall. We had no timing devices so had no clue as to our competitiveness... Then came my turn and I tried to reproduce the good feeling I had had the day before but felt the track to be much more slippery.

Now the right-hander that dictates your speed onto the pit straight is an interesting one, but then so is the one at the end of said straight! But after some three laps the car suddenly sputtered at the start of the straight and made me fear an empty fuel tank! So I went in... To discover my water temp gauge reading zero! Symptom of an embarrassing air pocket in the coolant circuit, but what was its cause?

Before any further investigation, we would have to behave like Gentlemen for Mrs Spaggs practice and I believe we did just that but don’t ask me where we were on the grid, but does it really matter much? We both enjoyed the ride tremendously and were pretty even (we now had stopwatches!)

In the meantime, the Monza had cooled down and sounded her usual glorious self... until temperature reached 70° by which she threw all sort of smokey foamy water out of the rad: blown head gasket, scratched race...

More pleasant meals then the Gentlemen Drivers race! I was to take the rolling start in which I performed mediocrely and found myself behind David Bennet's Aston DB3s which looked very big compared to my tiny TZ... He was much faster up the straight but I would catch him around the turns with my nimbler car. Took me four laps to pass him.

I then concentrated on this peculiar rhythm of gesture repetition which I so much enjoy, only occasionally perturbed by the lapping by faster cars, or the (even more!) occasional passing of some slower ones. You go into "a groove" and what a pleasure it is! The TZ is a noisy car but earplugs solve that and it is surprisingly airy once you set the vents in the appropriate position. Steering, brakes gearchange, pedals, all are light, precise, hallmarks of a true racing car.
It was over too quickly and I threw myself out of the car to let Stoop do his thing! He seemed to enjoy it just as much but I confused him with my gestures from the pit wall to indicate him to switch off the turn signal I had forgotten...We finished 23rd (I think) and both had a great time even if ours isn't the quickest of the TZ…
After yet another interesting dinner, we peacefully drove across France in true Bentley Continental fashion.

D.B.

I found it very hot and sweaty, with excellent racing - a French Historic Silverstone equivalent. There was nothing of great interest to report, except that one acquaintance of mine got lucky, in the small hours, with an Asian bird, but wasn't sure whether it was a man or woman!

T.D.P.

Should've done better - but - could've done worse. Still the best circuit I know. Hot again - but this year boosted by a nearby(ish) swimming pool. It helps to butter up the right people.…

P.G.P.

Perhaps it was the extreme heat or the inclusion of the L’Age d’Or event, moved from Montlhéry, but this year did not seem as much fun as last year which had been one of the highlights, although most of the racing was close and enjoyable to watch.

N.W.

Great circuit, great racing, hot as mustard (the weather not me), shame about the Wills ring in the Connaught. Thanks to Peter Mann for the offer of a drive in the Frazer Nash for the pre-61 GP race, shame on the FIA for not letting me run, but I suppose they have bigger problems to deal with right now.

M.B.

Dijon-lovely old town, well run meeting, friendly French a nice change. Very entertaining circuit giving great opportunities to perfect drifting techniques, particularly in 1500 kg cars . Up the hill you appeared to ascend diagonally.

Hard on wheels, two sets of spokes and one hub gave up!

R.S.

We arrived at Dijon somewhat overheated to find that all the best places had been taken by those more pushy or should I say efficient (!) Brits that seem to have now seen off the Germans entirely, however all was not lost, we had booked a pit garage that turned out to be a Godsend as the temperature headed up to 35ºC.

Practice started on Friday, and it was scorching, apparently the track was over 100ºC, the P3 seemed in good form and the track was exciting, however after only 6 laps the car completely overheated and emptied its radiator in the pit lane, this meant that sadly John VL did not get a chance to try her out for the first time since he sold her to me 2 years ago.

Luckily no lasting damage appeared to have been done and we prepared for round one of the Motor Racing

Legends event on Saturday. Decisions, decisions should we run on the Blockley’s for long legs or the Dunlops to try and avoid running at top revs all round the circuit and overheating again?

We went with Dunlops which should give more speed round the back of the circuit, but in top gear.

Then calamity the car expired just before the grid. Panic! But the car was brought back to life by Spencer our mechanic who found a dodgy oil switch to be the culprit, the car burst into life and we hurriedly arrived at the front of the grid to do the warm up lap.

Red lights off and a twitchy start, just squeezed into the first corner ahead of James Diffey’s very quick Alta 2 litre, he then proceeded to climb all over the back of me for the next mile of swoops and turns, before I was able to pull away again on the straight, but by the end of lap 2 we had swapped lead several times and I, or rather the car, was starting to get hot and I was now having to ease back to 4500 revs on the straight instead of 5000 rpm.

One of the most memorable moments was coming out of the long corkscrew last turn before the straight, both of us on opposite lock, full drift attached as by a thread.

However lap times came down and we pulled out a 5 second lead before I came into the pits for the driver change. John jumped in and headed off, but next in came James and he did a lightning run around the car and was away gaining some twenty seconds in the driver change. John and I must be slowing up!

John tried valiently, but could not bring back the 13 second deficit, which gave James first and us second.

An alien French Bugatti 51 running on methanol with no lights and mudguards came in a distant third, having spun on the way into the pitlane.

Little did we then know our race was then run as we planned how we would speed up the hand over to win the second round on Sunday, but as we pushed the car back to the garage an ominous rumble could be heard in the rear axle, cone gears or differential we still don’t know, but that was the end of our involvement in Dijon.

A great circuit to race on and a well organised event, except for some bizarre reason they insisted on running us on hand timing, with the inevitable missed times, but all in all well done Eric Helaine.

So we were forced to amble down the Routes des Grand Crus and take in the great chateaux and wines, what a bind!

TOPS TEAM

Richard Pilkington	Talbot Lago 1950	Tania Pilkington	Cooper T43 1957
Ian Nuthall	Alta F2 1952	David Bennett	Aston Martin DB3S
Tony Bianchi	Farellac Allard 1958	Hubert Fabri	Alfa Romeo TZ2
Douglas Blain	Morgan +4	David White	Cooper Bristol Mk11 1953
Mary Grant	Cooper Bristol Mk 11	John v-Llewelyn	Cooper T45 1958
Adrian vd Kroft	Cooper T39 1955	Hubert Fabri	Alfa Romeo Monza 1932
Barry Wood	Cooper Bristol 1952	Chris Wilson	McLaren M1B
David Bennett	Maserati A6 1953	Peter Mann	Frazer Nash LM 1952
Paul Grant	Cooper Bristol Mk 11	Nick Wigley	Tojeiro Bristol 1953
Barry Wood	RGS Atalanta 1952	Alex Quattlebaum	Elva Mk 3 1957
Rod Jolley	Monza Lister 1958	David Bennett	Maserati A6GCM 1953
Charles Cook	Attila Mk 111 1964	Richard Pilkington	McLaren M1B 1965
Paul Grant	Tojeiro Aston 1956	Mary Grant	Tojeiro Aston 1956
Richard Wills	Lola Mk 1 1958	Rod Jolley	Alvis FD 1928
John Guyatt	Stutz Blackhawk 1929	Adrian vd Kroft	Morgan 4/4 1937
Mark Butterworth	Lagonda V12 1938	Roger Saul	Alfa P3 1934
Bill Ainscough	Alfa Romeo Monza ‘31