06-2015 The seventh round of the French National Hillclimb Championship took place at Marchampt, near Lyon. This was the traditional 'Beaujolais Villages' event, now in its 53rd year, organised by the ASA Beaujolais, headed up by Daniel Demare, and with the help of the Marchampt fete team.
The 3.9 km course starts in the heart of the village: the first part is ultra-fast, with a series of sweeping bends taken at up to 200kph followed by hard braking to take the famous 'portail' hairpin.
Two Marcadiers were amongst the 40 Historic cars entered: Michel Champelovier's F2 single-seater and Pascal Ferretti's barquette. Gilles Coursoux was absent: the event is not to his liking, and in any case his Simca-engined barquette's gearing is too short for this very fast course.
In practice, Jean-Marc Debeaune's Van Diemen was quickest, with Michel right behind. Pascal was fourth, running in his new engine after its problems at Col St Pierre. The timed runs took place under a baking temperature, which took its toll on both cars and drivers. As in practice, Debeaune was fastest, followed by Michel who improved over two seconds compared with his practice times. Pascal, who was the sole Group 6 entry, maintained his fourth place despite having to limit the revs on his new engine, thus not being able to use all its power.