09-2015 The weekend of september 27 th saw the Limonest hillclimb, a non- championship event held on the slopes of Mont Verdun just north of Lyon next to a large military base. It is one of the longest-standing hillclimbs, beginning in 1905: it was a round of the French Championship until 2014. Many of France's top hillclimbers were formed here, particularly in the 1980's, including the likes of Maublanc, Mieusset, Rivoire, Damaisin, Sourd, Tarres and Pignard.
It's relatively 'technical' 2.550 km course consists of several slow corners and short straights: Fort Corner commands respect from all participants, having seen many 'offs' over the years. There were 149 entrants in the Modern category, including the Didier Thorin's Barzoi in Groupe F.
Amongst the 49 'Historics' were five Marcadiers, comprising M Champelivier's F2 single seater, V Lagache's AMK, P Ferretti's CanAm, G Coursoux's Simca-engined barquette and G Dumoulin's FM01. Under radiant sunshine, Ferretti was fastest Marcadier in practice,followed by Champelovier, Lagache, Coursoux and Dumoulin.
Then, in the timed runs, Michel Champelovier at last put behind him the overall-heating problems which have troubled him in earlier events and, with new enthusiasm and improving with each run, took second place overall two seconds behind Eric Bady's Martini.
Unsurprisingly, the Marcadier hierarchy took Pascal Ferretti to 4th place (behind Debeaune's Van Diemen), with Vincent Lagache 6th. Poor Gilles Coursoux had problems, losing first and second gears, yet was still placed 11th. Gerard Dumoulin, in a relatively underpowered car, took 39th place: he has plans for a more powerful motor for next year. In the French Championship for open-topped cars, Marcadiers took 4th, 5th and 6th places, driven respectively by Champelovier, Ferretti and Lagache.
Well done to all, and good luck for 2016.
