Les 2 Tours d’Horloge – Victory for Team Rosbif Hyett
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The weekend of 4-5 November saw the 17th running of the 2 Tours d’Horloge on the Paul Ricard circuit, the only historic competition in the world that runs over a period of 24 hours without interruption. The enthusiasm for such a race was confirmed by the ever-increasing number of crews taking part and saw victory for the British Team Rosbif Hyett of the father-and-sons crew of Ross, Charlie and Nick Hyett in their Tiga SC 83.
The Steve Brooks/Jamie Constable/Mike Cantillon Lola T70 MK3B fuels up in the night. The team took pole position in the dry, and then suffered a broken throttle cable, which put them down the order, and they finally retired 2/3 of the way through
Brits Steve Brooks/Jamie Constable/Mike Cantillon took pole in a dry qualifying in a Lola T70 MK3B, but the weather conditions that awaited the competitors the next day as they lined up for the Le Mans start were very different. Abundant showers and thick fog forced the Race Director to send the cars off at 15:00 behind the safety car, and it was only an hour and nine minutes later that conditions improved enough for the green flags to finally fly.
Father and sons Team Rosbif Hyett of Ross, Charlie and Nick Hyett finished a full 8 laps ahead of nearest rival
A battle at the front quickly emerged between the Porsche 930 Turbo of Pascal Duhamel and Sébastien Crubilé and the pole-sitting Lola T70, with the Lionspeed GP Porsche 964 Cup driven by Jose Garcia/Timmo Mol/Patrick Kolb/Patric Niederhauser, the Tiga SC 84 of defending champions, Chris Snowdon/David Houghton/Mike Fry/Joshua Law, the Tiga SC 83 of the Hyetts, the Rover SD1 (ex-René Metge) of Nick Sleep/Alex Montgomery/Alex Taylor, and the Porsche 911 3.0 of Serge Libens/Marc and Christine de Siebenthal/Henrique Gemperle, all in contention.
Armand Mille/Guillaume Mahé/Erwin France took the ex-Thierry Boutsen BMW 635 Group A to the top of the Touring car podium, albeit a little worse for wear
As the hours went by, technical problems and racing incidents halted the progress of some of the leading cars, starting with the Brooks/Constable/Cantillon T70, which dropped down to 30th place after its throttle cable broke. Then, the 2022-winning Tiga was involved in a collision and was forced to return to its pits to change a broken wishbone, relegating it to 20th place.
After the long, dark night, the victors celebrate under an azur sky and bright sunshine
Read the full report in our December 2023 issue, available in hard copy and digital editions….
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