Grand Prix de Cadours
The Grand Prix de Cadours (German: Großer Preis von Cadours ) was an automobile race that was held eight times in the southwestern French town of Cadours ( Haute-Garonne ) from 1949 to 1961 . In individual years the race was alternatively referred to as the Circuit de Cadours , at times also as the Grand Prix Haute-Garonne des Cadours . Over time, it was advertised for different racing classes, including Formula 2 , Formula Junior and once also Formula 1 . In the Formula 1 era, the race had no world championship status . At the second Cadours Grand Prix in 1950, the French racing driver Raymond Sommer had a fatal accident.
history
Cadours is a municipality with a population of around 1,000 in the Toulouse area .
The first automobile race in Cadours took place in the summer of 1948. It was a drag race in which only amateurs from the region took part. The race was organized by Louis Arrivet, owner of a local auto repair shop. The following year, Arrivet, with the support of the Automobile Club de France, launched the first Cadours Grand Prix, which was advertised as a Formula 2 race and was still an amateur race. For the second edition of the Grand Prix, the organizers invited numerous internationally known racing drivers. Some of them, including Marcel Balsa , René Bonnet , Aldo Gordini and Raymond Sommer, accepted the invitation. At the time of the race, Sommer, who was 44 years old, took pole position and covered the fastest lap overall. The race was marked by several serious accidents. René Bonnet had an accident in the first run; he was thrown from the car, but remained almost unharmed. In the final, Sommer came off the track on lap four due to a steering defect and crashed into a tree. He suffered serious injuries from which he died on site.
Regardless of Raymond Sommer's fatal accident, the race was held almost annually until 1961. The sixth edition in 1954 was a Formula 1 race without world championship status. As in previous years , some internationally known racing drivers took part in it: Jean Behra , André Pilette , Harry Schell and Louis Rosier . However, not only Formula 1 cars competed here; rather, as in many other side races in the 1950s, there were also various Formula 2 cars. Behra won the race in a Formula 2 Gordini T16 . Ultimately, the Grand Prix de Cadours could not establish itself as a Formula 1 race. After a two-year break, the event was organized as a one-off sports car race in 1957, before it was finalized as a Formula Junior race in 1959 and 1961.
Racetrack
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The Grand Prix de Cadours was held on the Circuit Automobile de Cadours-Laréole (also: Circuit Automobile de Cadours), a temporary race track that used public roads, including the D29, D41 and D81 départemental roads. It was between the parishes of Cadours and Lareóle . The route formed a triangle that led out of the village through fields and ended back in the village. Apart from this unchanged basic configuration, route details and the length of the course varied almost annually. Usually the course was about 4 km long; only in 1952 and 1953 the route length was more than 5.5 km. The protection was provided by bales of straw.
The race was usually driven in several stages. A first and a second run was followed by a final, in which the best drivers from the first two runs took part.
Results
The following overview shows the results of the finals.
Web links
- Statistics of the Grand Prix de Cadours 1954 on the website www.silhouet.com
- Statistics of the Formula 2 and Formula Junior races from 1949 to 1961 on the website www.formula2.net
Individual evidence
- ^ Biography of Raymond Sommer on the website www.grandprix.com (accessed April 24, 2015).
- ↑ Illustration of the Circuit Automobile de Cadours-Laréole on the website www.silhouet.com (accessed on April 24, 2015)
