After a successful 2023 season, the V de V Sports team continued to tirelessly prepare for the 2024 season, which will comprise three dates including a unique event.
In fact, this new race on the calendar will kick off the season. The rendezvous is fixed for Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th May for the 6 Hours of Navarra organised on the circuit of the same name, located less than an hour’s drive from Pamplona, the capital of the Navarra region, an autonomous community in the north of Spain. V de V Sports went there to visit the site, considered one of the best on the Iberian Peninsula with a 4- kilometre track labeled FIA Grade 1 and Grade 2 allowing it to host Formula 1 tests. Inaugurated in 2010, it boasts superb infrastructure including 32 first-class garages, 17 hospitality suites and 27,500 m² of asphalt paddock space. The circuit was taken over by the MotorSport Vision group of former British Formula 1 driver, Jonathan Palmer, and it has continued to evolve as the track was recently resurfaced, and Turn 6 modified to make it faster.
This first endurance event of the V de V Sports season reserved for Historic Racing Cars will share the bill with a round of the ROSCAR GT Challenge, and the same organiser’s new series, the Elite Racing Series. The programme for the first edition of the 6 Hours of Navarra includes a one-hour practice session and one hour’s qualifying on Saturday followed by the race on Sunday from 10:30 to 16:30.
Seven weeks later, V de V will head for the Le Castellet circuit for the 6 Hours of Paul Ricard, organised on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th July as part of a meeting which will also host the F4 Spain, EUROCUP 3 and the RADICAL CUP grids. A one-hour practice session is scheduled for Friday followed by qualifying (1 hour), and the race will take place on Saturday from 18:20 to 00:20.
The V de V Sports season will end on 1-2-3 November with the 18th edition of the 2 Tours d’Horloge. This event, the only competition in the world reserved for Historic Competition Cars run over a non-stop period of 24 hours, was resurrected in 2021 by its creator, Eric Van de Vyver, now associated with his daughter Laure in the organisation of this unique race. During the meeting, two other grids will also take to the track: one reserved for GT and Touring cars before 1965, the ASAVE Racing 65, and the other for GT and Touring cars before 1976, the ASAVE Racing 76. Each will have 30 minutes free practice, 30 minutes qualifying and two 45-minute races.
Note that the poster for the 2024 edition is the work of François Chevalier, a famous painter and sculptor, who was also the first manager of the Paul Ricard Circuit for more than thirty years, in particular during the first editions of the 2 Tours d’Horloge from 1992 to 1998. Chevalier provided wide-ranging support for Eric Van de Vyver in the organisation of this race and contributed greatly to its success.
VIPs AT DEPARTURE
The highlight of the season, the 2 Tours d’Horloge, is accustomed to welcoming renowned drivers and other personalities from the automotive and sporting worlds among the competitors. Starting with the former tennis player, Henri Leconte (winner of the Davis Cup in 1991, finalist in the French Open in 1988 and winner of the men’s doubles tournament at Roland Garros in 1984), a participant right from the very start of this race in which he has often shared the wheel of a TVR Griffith 200 with Eric Van de Vyver. Gregory Galiffi, TV host of the Direct Auto show broadcast on the C8 channel, discovered the event two years ago at the wheel of a Porsche 944 S2 entered by the team managed by Alain Cudini (former French Touring Car champion with thirteen participations in the 24 Hours of Le Mans), raced in it again last year and intends to return in 2024. His opposite number at Auto Moto on TF1, Jean-Pierre Gagick, another great lover of races reserved for historic competition cars, also tasted the magic of the 2 Tours d’Horloge and has promised to return in 2024.
Who better than a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to be at the start of the 2 Tours d’Horloge? Benoît Tréluyer, victorious in the Sarthe classic in 2011, 2012 and 2014 at the wheel of a works Audi R18 e-Tron Quattro TDI, FIA World Endurance Champion in 2012 and runner-up in 2013, 2014 and 2015, without forgetting a Japanese championship title in Super GT (2008) and in Formula Nippon (2006), also discovered the event last November at the wheel of a Porsche 944 Turbo entered by his Team Trajectus, which he shared with his son, Jules. The Tréluyer family loved their first outing in the event and is already preparing their return to the 2 Tours d’Horloge. Like other VIP crews who will soon announce their participation in the race…
Crédits photos : Tchaul31 Photographies https://tchaul.wixsite.com/tch31
Crédits photos : Hugues Laroche
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