08-2016 There are legendary motor sport events such as the Le Mans 24 hours endurance race and the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. In hillclimbing, the 5.075 km Mont Dore climb, with its 43 bends situated between Moneaux and the Col de la Croix St Robert is just as fabled.

It was initiated in 1961 by one Yves Auriacombe, who happened to be holidaying in the nearby spa. Thousands of drivers, both renowned and unknown, have competed here in the more than 50 times it has taken place. The first event was won by the late Jose Rosinski in a Formula Junior Cooper.

Amongst the famous who have competed at the Mont Dore are Jean-Pierre Beltoise in his F1 Matra MS12, Maurice Trintignant, Oreiller, Schlesser, Larousse, Maublanc, Mieusset and, of course, eleven-times winner Marcel Tarres. It has seen tragic moments too, such as Daniel Rouvetron's 1973 fatal accident at the wheel of his F1 single-seater.

There were 142 'modern' entrants, and 42 'historics' in this, the event's 56th year. The weather conditions were ideal all weekend. Only one Marcadier was present, the ex-Coupe de l'Avenir barquette of Gilles Coursoux: two of his Sports-Prototype Class 'regulars' ( Fernand Santarelli with his Tiga and Pascal Ferretti with his class-winning Marcadier) had chosen to give the event a miss.

In practice Gilles, who knows the climb well, took second place behind the Van Diemen single-seater of Jean-Marc Debeaune. The first timed runs on Sunday saw a hotly-contested struggle for podium places, with Giboulet's BMW 3.0 CSL slotting in between the unbeatable Debeaune and Gilles. However, in the second timed run Bonvarlet's March 75 took second place, relegating Gilles again to third place

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