Pau is a historic hillside village
in the Pyrénées region of south-west France. The street
circuit has hosted a Grand Prix event almost continuously since it
was first held in 1933. The circuit itself has changed, but only a
small section at the Palais de Beaumont. On the winners list from
the past you’ll see a couple of Australians, with Jack Brabham
winning in 1960 & more recently, Ryan Briscoe, 2003 in a Dallara
Opel Formula 3 car.
The meeting was far different from the previous
weekend’s Donington Historic Festival, mainly with more French
and European in general cars entered, and most in the town speaking
little other than French. The scribe can say it’s the first
time he has got lost more than once leaving the same place (ever),
and finally after walking around for so long, then looking across
the street to see the hotel! Found out that you’re meant to
turn right out of the hotel, not left! The walk to the circuit then
became 10 minutes.
The media centre was non-existent at Pau, but
a lanyard and arm-band were given for access to both the pit area
& trackside. Although areas for photo taking trackside were quite
minimal for two reasons; that the track in many places is wall to
wall, and areas of low wall the only spots to take photos in front
of the wire and crowd. Unfortunately, though photographers were barred
from much of the accessible areas during the weekend, which made it
even more difficult to photo. You will notice this when reviewing
the galleries that there are some galleries that were taken literally
on the track, and others from distant points.
The Historic Grand Prix Cars Association (HGPCA)
brought with them two grids to Pau to contest both the “Trophee
de Pau” for F1 cars and the “Trophee Argnintin”
for GP cars. Two very exciting grids. The HGPCA set up comes with
a Pantec truck, which is used for the duel purpose of car transportation
and the nerve-centre for their hospitality arrangements. A large two
sided marquee is erected off the truck, and at lunch they will serve
about 200 guests. Quite a gourmet lunch too, thanks to the generousity
of their Competition Secretary, Marcue Pye for allowing me to partake.
The scribe found two Australians competing
in three cars. West Australian, John Davies was making his international
event debut in his recently acquired Cooper T45. Davies had his first
race meeting in this car at the 2013 Phillip Island Classic in March,
then (after minor convincing from fellow T45 owner Scotty Taylor)
chose to ship the car to the UK & has scheduled eight events for
the season. Unfortunately, the narrow circuit ended his weekend early
in qualifying when he hit the wall (admitting that it was completely
his fault). The team at Hi-Tech who are looking after his travels
will no doubt have the car ready in time for the Masters Grand Prix
at Brands Hatch on 26-27 May.
With Scotty Taylor recovering from a hip replacement
operation weeks before Pau, his two entered cars (Lotus 18 F1 &
Cooper T53) were left in the UK & Sid Hoole (preparer) chose to
enter his Cooper 66 – V8 1.5Lt Coventry-Climax powered (absolutely
awesome sound, particularly with no sound dampers), so the Thallon
camp were the second Australian.
Don has brought over two cars this season,
his Cooper T53 F1 and the MRC FJ.. He has previously travelled with
the Formula Junior, but this is the first time in the Cooper, and
he was quite pleased to be in a grid of several like-minded cars.
Don and Janette took the two cars, transporter (van) and trailer in
a 40ft container, which arrived in the UK where they picked all up
& took to their digs for the next 6 months, a house in the French
region of Normandy. We guess part of the reason for taking two cars
this year was following Don’s lack of luck at Pau in 2012 where
he managed just 3 laps. He managed to finish all races this year,
in both cars, with top 6 finishes in the Formula Junior races and
top 10 in the Trophee Argintin races. Although it wasn’t all
that easy with gearbox problems plaguing his Cooper T53, slipping
out of 3rd & 4th. A pit fix not providing a permanent fix, so
he was content with some sightseeing while racing! An illness didn’t
help either.
Trophee
de Pau
The
Trophee de Pau was a hard-fought affair across the weekend’s
two races, with Cooper the dominant force, and in the first race provided
spectators at the final S corner (not viewable from the pits, nor
commentary) the most spectacular crash of the weekend. With Mr. John
O.F.B breaking hard to avoid an oil spill (just occurred) the UK’s
Andrew Beaumont went over the top of the Lola Mk4 in his Classic Team
Lotus prepared No. 4 Lotus 24 and did much damaged (refer to the photo
gallery for this event). Both drivers were fine.
Above
photo: Rod
Jolly slides his Cooper T45/51 while others take the more conventional
line.
At
the pointy end of the field, it was Cooper dominated with Rod Jolly
putting on his usual show of driving brilliance sliding the Cooper
T45/51 around every corner, every lap. He seems to line the car up
well before the corner and turn in with a purpose slid of the rear
wheels. Magic stuff, particularly when one is centimetres behind a
1 metre high one-layer Armco fence taking photos! Felt quite safe
though.
All categories get four chances at the circuit
across the weekend, firstly with a ‘free practice’ session,
then qualifying & two 25 minute races. In essence, quite a lot
of track time, and for the spectator some exciting long races. The
hardest part is adapting your ears to the French commentary!
Peter Horsman upstaged the Coopers in qualifying,
taking pole position in his Lotus 1/218 from William Nuttall (Cooper
T53, son of long time racer Ian) and Jolly. Thallon qualified 7th
& Davies 18th, but was out due to his aforementioned collision.
Horsman had race one from Jolly, with Nuttall
making an error and finishing fourth. Sid Hoole was the mover, passing
Thallon (suffering from the gearbox issue) and tok fifth, Thallon
relegated to 8th.
The final race for the Trophee de Pau for 2013
was quite exciting to watch from the exit of the hairpin the first
four places were tightly contested, but it was Horsman who made it
two wins for the weekend, although the real battle initially was between
the three Coopers occupying the next three places, which finished
in that of Jolly & Jonathan Hughes (Cooper T53) battling to the
end with Jolly taking second place with a few laps to go. Miles Griffiths
finished fourth in his Cooper T51 ahead of Hoole & Thallon.
Tophee
Argintin
Trophee Argintin was the other grid promoted
by the HGPCA and continued to roll out some of the greatest cars of
the pre-war and post-war Grand Prix era. Julian Bronson made life
look easy in the well balanced, very quick Scarab Offenhauser, dominant
all weekend, first in free practice, qualifying & both races.
The
field included German Rainer Ott’s Maserati 4CLT/48 (unfortunately
the victim of heavy impact with the wall early on), a Ferrari 625
driven by Alex Boswell of the UK, and Nigel Bachelor displayed the
Penrite Oil logo in the engine bay of the Keift GP. A sheered wishbone
put an early end to Bachelor’s weekend, which resulted in other
damage. Three Cooper-Bristol, two Cooper T45, a T41, Gordini &
Frazer NashNurburg were there too, but the main contenders for the
lead (should something go amiss for Bronson) were Tony Smith &
Paddins Dowling.
Above
photo: Jean-Marc Laffont from France in his Cooper Bristol.
Smith put the P3 Alfa away after Donington
the week before and brought out another very historic car from his
stable, the Ferrari 246 Dino. In Phil Hill’s hands this car
was the last front-engined Formula One car to win a World Championship
GP, the 1960 Italian GP. Dowling sending over the pre-war ERA R10B,
and not losing too much ground to the more modern and developed post-war
cars ahead.
The first race was a disaster for Smith (who
qualified second) with the Ferrari overheating on the start line after
issues with another entrant correctly making their grid position.
So Smith started from pit lane, and had to fight his way through the
field. Very exciting to watch as Smith was not hanging about, skating
the Ferrari through corners like it was on the edge. He finished third,
but would’ve had Dowling if for another two laps. The second
race changed though, and by lap two Smith had passed Dowling, but
could not get close to Bronson. Smith was also nursing a dicky clutch
at that point, chief engineer George advising me it is a 6 ½
task to change the clutch in this car. Dowling finished third ahead
of the post-war cars of Hoole (Cooper T41) and the Boswell Ferrari.
FIA
Laurani Trophy for Formula Junior Cars
The Trophee Junior races, as did the Formula
Ford grid, put on some close fought wheel-to-wheel racing, and for
the Junior cars they had a Championship race Sunday afternoon for
the FIA Lurani Series. Jonathon Hughes took victory in his Brabham
BT6, after 16 laps, some 11.2 seconds ahead of second placed Lotus
22 of Scotland’s John Fyda. And the Suisse Phillip Buhofer,
third in his Lola Mk5A.
Above
photo: The ex. Leo Geoghegen Lotus 22 of John Fyda from Scotland.
Thallon
finished 6th in the MRC 22 with Lionel Aryes watching over from above,
having succumb to a battle with cancer in the week of the preceding
the meeting.
Thoughts
Well worth the visit, but not an easy meeting
for a spectator. Plenty of walking – steps, steep inclines,
etc, but there are some small grandstands dotted around for resting
the feet. Much better to be in the position to take a car & enter
the meeting – see more of the track. Even with the media credentials
it was hard to get to various places that other meetings would happily
give you access to.
Many thanks though to the organisers from Peter
Auto, particularly Audrey and the other ladies in the media area,
and special thanks must go to Stella and Marcus from the HGPCA for
their kind hospitality.
Historic
Racing Australia