Tour Auto 2017 ... Leg 2 Saint-Malo – Nantes


255 FERRARI 308 GTB Gr IV s/n 20457 1976 - Arnaud GAUDUEL / Jean Baptiste REPELLIN (FRA_FRA)

255 FERRARI 308 GTB Gr IV s/n 20457 1976 - Arnaud GAUDUEL / Jean Baptiste REPELLIN (FRA_FRA)

 

Paris, 27 April, 2017

One day after the convoy left the French Capitol the second leg of this year’s Tour Auto led from yesterday’s finish Saint-Malo to the suburbs of Nantes. Apparently Saint-Malo was a first on the map of the annual classic and so not just the finish of yesterday’s leg but also the first part of todays was a refreshing new to the tour.


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24 Paris Scutineering
25 Saint-Malo
26 Haute-Goulaine
27 Limoges
28 Toulouse
29 Biarritz

 

The Bretagne might be the most rustic part of France with its harsh coastal line but certainly this added the charm of the first two legs. After the classic with the visit at Le Mans yesterday the journey did not lead to the south as usual but further north to Saint-Malo. After a late finish in the evening the first cars were lined up in freezing temperatures early in the morning to take another long day on the road, today without the stop on one of the race tracks but with no less than 3 timed special stages on closed country roads taking more out of the drivers and the cars than a track visit ever could. Unfortunately the late Prince Song “Sometimes it snows in April” could be taken serious today as the teams were welcome at the coastal line with some light snow showing the conditions they had to run all the days and the temperatures to numerous volunteers had to adapt to on the time and stamp points. Nevertheless a good amount of people could be seen on every Optic2000 shop along the road welcoming the tour as the name giving sponsor. The highlight of the day was certainly the first part along the steep rocks of the Atlantic coast giving rarely seen sights during this year’s Tour.

But this was not all that was new but certainly on the second day one could attest that there is a new contender for the overall victory of the competition class. After years of the eternal duel Caron/Lajournade early on the first special stage and especially at Le Mans the DK-Engineering prepared Ford GT40 of Smith/Cottingham could set an explanation mark under their ambitions to compete. After setting the first mark with 7 second on Caron at the first special stage it was a massive lead at Le Mans giving them a minute advantage over the competition on day one as Caron ran into trouble early in Le Mans. Caron seems to be back in the game after setting the best time on one of today’s special stages for the first time this year with the other two again dominated by the British GT40. After the second day the silver GT40 is leading by 2:17 minutes on a duo of Jaguar E-Type of Lajournade and Favaro with Caron now in third in his Shelby Cobra.

Tomorrow will lead from Haute-Goulaine to Limoges with two further special stages and the visit of the Val de Vienne Circuit. It will be interesting to see whether the GT40 could keep up the pace and the reliability as several GT40 led in previous years but rarely saw the finish line of the Tour Auto Optic, this year staged in Biarritz.

Furthermore the Ligier previously entered by Paul Knapfield is again in the lead of the later Prototypes, now in the hands of Mr. John of B. The regularity is led by a trio of Ferrari but all within a few seconds this will probably change in the next few days. 

We will keep you up-to-date with the Tour in the next days and hope you enjoy the images of the landscape and the cars.

Images: Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de