French Championships

Historic Tour Round Three Magny- Cours

For its third destination of the year, the French Historic Championship drivers shared the bill at Nevers Magny-Cours with the French Truck Racing Championship. Home of the French Grand Prix between 1991 and 2008, a crowd of over 20,000 spectators was able to watch the history of the sport unfold, as over 300 historic entries competed in the various French Championships at the famous Nièvre track. After a mixed meteo at rounds one and two at Dijon and Charade in June, further unstable conditions met the drivers at Magny-Cours on the weekend of 5-7 July.

There were standout performances from Monegasque driver Jean-Pierre Richelmi, who won two Pre-‘66 Maxi 2L Classic races in his Lotus Elan 26R to increase his points haul in the Pre 90 GT/ Touring Cars Championship and close the gap to title leader Emmanuel Brigand, running in the Over 2L class, to just five points, and Philippe Gandini who took his Mini Cooper S to two wins in the Maxi 1300 Series to finish just one point behind Richelmi. Another double winner, François Belle (Formula Ford Historic) maintained his solid lead over Jean-Charles Monnet and his Formula Renault Turbo Classic in the Single-Seater Championship table.

Richelmi also shone in the 200km Endurance race on Saturday evening, to win the GT Category in a Porsche 934 Turbo despite mechanical problems at the end of the race. With co-driver Philippe Gache, he currently leads the Championnat de France d’Endurance Historique. “It was hard because we lost power at the end, but we won the category and we’ll get it back on track for the next race,” he said.

Jean-Pierre Richelmi, drove his Lotus Elan 26R to four overall victories in the Maxi 2L Classic series at Charade and Magny-Cours