As the countdown brings us closer each day to the 30th anniversary edition of the 2 Tours d’Horloge, the list of entries continues to grow and already 12 different nationalities are represented.
The famous endurance event created by Eric Van de Vyver in 1992 was successfully revived last year and remains the only one open to historic racing cars taking place over an unbroken period of 24 Hours. As in the past, the race will be held on the Paul Ricard circuit, the theatre of the recent French Formula 1 Grand Prix. This unmissable rendezvous for French and foreign teams, all enthusiastic endurance fans, has already received almost 40 entries representing a mixture that’s exclusive to all the great long-distance endurance races with drivers sharing the wheel of GT/Touring cars and Sports Prototypes.
Among them are the winners of the 6 Hours of Magny-Cours, Sébastien Crubile-Pascal Duhamel at the wheel of the Porsche 930 Turbo entered by the Pascalou Racing team. They will be out to clinch the double by scoring victory in the 2 Tours d’Horloge backed up by Romain Rocher who already raced in the 2021 event.
Last year, the crew compromising Armand Mille-Guillaume Mahé-Pierre-Alain & Erwin France entered a 24-Hour race for the first time and they are back again this year. In 2021, they finished second overall and won the TC4 category in their authentic Group A BMW 63, which raced in the European Touring Car Championship and the Spa 24 Hours driven by Thierry Boutsen. Another car from the Munich brand is the 635 CSI driven by the father-sons lineup of Paul, Jean-Baptiste and Matthieu Chateaux, victorious in the Touring category in the 6 Hours of Magny-Cours as well as the Super Production 635 of Jean-Marie Belleteste-Pierre Aviron-Violet-Steve Goldin-Serge Kriknoff. Also racing under the well-known propeller badge is the 323i entered by Wasserman Racing for Eric Wassermann-Charles Veillard-Pierre Vonic-Bert Smeets and the 2002 Ti driven by David Ferrer’s sons, Alexandre and Jérémy associated with Samuel Macarty and Quentin Jouanny.
GREGORY GALIFFI IN A PORSCHE 944
Among the teams entered in the colours of another famous German brand, Porsche, is the one run by Alain Cudini, former French Touring Car champion who also counts 13 starts in the Le Mans 24 Hours to his name. He has entered a Porsche 944 S2 for Arnold Noret-Franck Hardonniere-Jacques Colibet joined on this occasion by the host of TV programme Direct Auto, which will devote a full report to the event broadcast on the C8 channel. Cudini has also entered a 911 3.2 for Christian Noret-Philippe Vigneron-Eric Truffet-Eric Stener.
Other teams running Porsches include Duigou Racing with a 911 3.0 RS (Philippe Baudinière-Philippe Burel-Victor Fernandes-Eric Mouez), Circuit de Dakar/Mansfeld also with a 911 3.0 RS for Serge Liebens-Marc de Siebenthal-Henrique Gemperle, the Team YOKAÏ Z with a 944 Turbo (Christophe Noel-Jean Obeniche-Grégory Lecaude-Séverine Roy), Banking Compétition running a 964 (Jean-Marc and Romain Duval-Patrick Bonnardel-François Riaux), the Flatmotors by O-One team with a 964 RS (Jean-Marie, Corentin and Alexandre Pelletier), O-ONE with a 930 Turbo and the Team Flatsix Le Mans’ 911 3.0 SC for Christophe Gaultier-Pierre Le Flem/-Stéphane Deshayes-Mickael Bossuet. A big welcome too to the Team Bersi Immobilier that has entered a 911 3.0 RS for Damien Kohler-Grégoire Audi-Jean-Jacques Renaut, the Bretagne team bringing along a 911 3.0 SC for “Segolen”-Jean-Roch Piat, Daventure Racing with a 944 S2 (Delphine Chaillet-Edouard, Louis & Didier Ortion) and the JS Speed Shop’s 924.
Several 964 Cups will also be at the start like the one entered by Lyonspeed GP, winner of the 2014 edition of the 2 Tours d’Horloge, for Jose Garcia-Timo Mol-Patrick Kolb-Patric Niederhauser, that of YDEO by LD Racing for Benoit, Matthieu and Thomas Fretin associated with Michel Mitieus, Crubile Sport’s 964 for “Mister John of B” – “Son of B”- the”Commander” as well as the 964 Cup run by Pierre Vivier-Frédéric Comtet.
Proof of the wide-ranging diversity of the cars entered for the touring car category is the presence of the CMR team’s Alfa Romeo Giulia driven in particular by Enzo Richer (a young 16 year old who usually races in the French Formula 4 Championship), the Opel Commodore B GSE run by the Bretagne team for “Segolen”-Pierre Laversanne-Jorge Vargas-Clement and the Rover 3500 (ex-French Production category champion driven by René Metge) entered by the British team SLEEP for Nick Sleep-Joel Wykeham-Alex Montgomery.
And let’s not forget the GTs in the race including the Marcos Mantis run by Daventure Racing (Alexandre Jaboulet-Vercherre-Jean-Marc Bachelier-Laurent Collin), the Lotus Europe entered by CMR Racing (Georges Cabanne-Laurent Fermaud-Fabien Michal-Grégory Guilvert) as well as Hyracing’s mighty Shelby Cobra Daytona driven by Olivier Muytjens-Brice Pineau-Kurt Dujardyn-Jacques Castelein and the irreplaceable TVR Griffith 200 entered by V de V Sports and entrusted to Patrick Brossard-Léo Mothe-Guillaume Maillard and the man without whom the event would never have existed – Eric Van de Vyver! Faithful participant at the wheel of this TVR in the 2 Tours d’Horloge, former tennis player Henri Leconte (winner of the Davis Cup in 1991, finalist in the French International Tournament in 1988 and winner of the men’s doubles in Roland Garros in 1984) is unable to make himself available due to the clash of dates with the Masters de Bercy.
The entry of the following prototypes has also been confirmed: the Palmyr team with a March 81 S (“Nelson”-François Belle-Augustin Sanjuan) and a Tiga SC 79 (Marc Faggionato-Christian Vaglio-Giors-Gislain Genecand), the British Rosbif team with two Tiga SC 83s the first of which will be entrusted to Ross, Nick and Charlie Hyett and the second to Chris Snowdon-Mike Fry-David Houghton-Josh Law. Two Chevron B16s have also been entered by the RPL and Atlantic Racing teams respectively: one for Didier and Julien Gruau-Maurice Bouvet-José Beltramelli and the other with a twin-rotor engine for Romain Belleteste-Christophe Gadais-Daniel Roustan-Thierry De Latre du Bousqueau. They will be joined by a Crossle 47S in the hands of Felix Haas-Peter Bachofen-Georg Hallau-Markus Jörg and a Lola T598 crewed by Valerio and Davide Leone/Marco Coppini-Roberto Tonetti.
While most of the weekend will be devoted to the 2 Tours d’Horloge, there will also be enough time for the hotly-contested Legends Car Cup race, a one-make formula for cars powered by a Yamaha 900 cc fuel injection engine putting out 140 bhp for a weight of 480 kg. The Mazda Roadster Pro Cup will provide the crowd with the opportunity to see Mazda MX5s battling it out on the track!
Contact Médias : Henri Suzeau : hsuzeau@ontheroadconsulting.net – Tél.: +33 (0)6 08 26 90 56
Contact V de V Sports : Laure Van de Vyver : +33 (0)6 28 53 12 99 – Éric Van de Vyver : +33 (0)6 09 11 28 69
Crédit photos : Victor Laroche, JM Biadatti, Philippe Floquet, Luc Joly, V de V Sports |
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