LES 2 TOURS D’HORLOGE 2024
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On the weekend of 1-3 November, 32 teams took a Le Mans style start under radiant provincial sun and embarked upon the 2 Tours d’Horloge on the Paul Ricard circuit, the only competition in the world for historic cars that runs for 24 hours without interruption. At the end of a hard-fought race, filled with setbacks, rebounds and twists of fate, the March 81S driven by “Nelson”/François Belle/Augustin Sanjuan crossed the finish line as the overall winner after 24 hours of racing and 526 laps of the Paul Ricard circuit.
After the 3pm start, a battle of Sport Prototypes quickly developed at the front of the pack, with the Chevron B16 Bi-Rotor entered by Atlantic Racing for Romain Belleteste/Christophe Gadais/Daniel Roustan/Jose Oliveira taking the lead for the first 33 laps until its first pit stop. It was ahead of the Chevron B19 of the Côtes du Rhône Racing Team driven by the Belgo-German crew of François Rivaz, Frank Stippler and Alexander Furiani, who had taken pole position the day before. Two Chevron B16s followed, the Chateaux Sport Auto team of Matthieu and Jean-Baptiste Chateaux, Philippe Scemama and Laurent Fort and the Team Europe car of Didier and Julien Gruau, Pierre-Alain France and Armand Mille.
François Rivaz, Frank Stippler and Alexander Furiani took thier Chevron B19 to pole and took fastest lap of the race, but were hobbled by gearbox problems
Among the favourites, the Porsche 934 Turbo prepared by André Caruso for Philippe Gache, Frédéric Rouvier and the Monegasque father and son duo of Jean-Pierre and Stéphane Richelmi, was in third place overall at the start, but was plagued by problems. Returning to the pits early on and slipping into the second half of the field with a torsion bar attachment problem, it then then had problems with the transponder, gearbox and finally tyre wear, forcing it into retirement. The Chevron B8 GT of “Mister John of B”/”Le Commandeur”/”Looping”/Soheil Ayari was slowed by fuel supply problems at the beginning of the race, which were the cause of its retirement in the evening.
Photos Gilles Chaulet
At the end of the first four hours, the Chevron B16 of Didier and Julien Grau/Pierre-Alain France/Armand Mille was the only Sport Prototype in the leading pack not to have experienced problems as it circulated at the front.
The seventh hour of the race saw the Chateaux Sport B16 move up ahead of the March to second place, one lap behind the leader. The battle at the front between the Equipe Europe and Chateaux Sport Auto crews continued until the early hours of the morning, but then trouble struck again, with the Team Europe B16 experiencing alternator problems that were quickly solved and the Chateaux Sport car victim of a broken gearbox that caused it to drop to 15th place in the overall standings. The final blow came when engine failure put it into retirement.
From then on, the March 81S of the Palmyr team (third in 2023) took the lead ahead of the Chevron B16 of Team Europe and the Porsche 911 3.0 of Team Mansfeld and continued to reel off fast and trouble-free laps to the line, a worthy win for “Nelson”/François Belle/Augustin Sanjuan.
For the full story and all the placings, as well as news of the support races, see our December 2024 issue….
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