Circuit de Reims-Gueux

Reims , Marne Department , France
Route type:	temporary racetrack
Opening:	July 25, 1926
Formula 1 venue :	1950-1966
Decommissioned:	June 11, 1972
Time zone:	UTC + 1 ( CET )
Track layout
Route data
Important events:	Formula 1, motorcycle world championship
Route length:	8.3  km (5.16  mi )
Records
Track record:	2: 10.5 min. (Paul Hawkins, Lola-Chevrolet, 1967)

Coordinates: 49 ° 15 ′ 14.6 "  N , 3 ° 55 ′ 51.4"  E

The Reims-Gueux race track was one of the most important and well-known motorsport tracks in France from 1926 to 1966 . It was about seven kilometers west of Reims between the municipalities of Thillois , Gueux and Muizon in the Marne department . The route consisted of a triangular course on the public roads D 27, D 26 and RN 31. Among other things, eleven Formula 1 World Championship races at the Grand Prix of the Automobile Club de France were held on it, as well as other Formula 1 and Formula 1 races. 2 runs, numerous sports car races and two runs forMotorcycle world championship .

history

On August 2, 1925 , a sports car race for the Grand Prix de la Marne on a 22 km circuit on public roads, which Pierre Clause won on a Bignan , took place on the Circuit de bein-Nauroy , north of the later race track . On July 25, 1926, an approximately 7.826 km long triangular course was opened, which had to be traveled in a clockwise direction . The initiator and operator was the Automobile Club Ardennais , later renamed the Automobile Club Ardenne Champagne Argonne , under the direction of Raymond "Toto" Roche . The first race (again for the Grand Prix de la Marne) that day was won by François Lescot in a Bugatti . The route essentially consisted of three straights and three hairpin bends , one of them in the middle of the village of Gueux between a butcher and a grocery store. Until 1937, races for the Marne Grand Prix in various racing car categories were held here every year. From 1932 to 1966 there were (with interruptions) 16 races at the French Grand Prix (with the exception of the 1949 race, however, officially referred to as the Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France ), including the first French run of the newly founded Automobile World Championship in 1950 . Between 1952 and 1969 , Formula 1, Formula 2, sports car and, most recently, Formula 3 races were also driven for the Grand Prix de Reims .

Guy Mairesse at the 1951 French Grand Prix.

In 1946 the line was renovated for the first time for twelve million old French francs . Above all, war damage had to be removed and trees felled in order to be able to widen the road a little. This did not change the route. The first fundamental modification did not take place until 1952: The Guex through-town and the section via the D 26 to the Virage de la Garenne were dropped, instead there was a new route: Directly after the start and finish on the D 27, the route turned to the right off to a new section Bretelle Sud . In 1953, a newly built section of the Bretelle Nord route was added with a modified Virage de Muizon curve , which led back to Route Nationale  31 (now part of European Route  46). The now 8.301 km long Circuit de Compétition offered a two-kilometer straight on the RN 31, which further increased the already high average speeds. In addition, a slightly more than seven kilometer long track with part of the old track was used as the Circuit Permanent d'Essais for test drives and smaller racing events.

The risks of the route characteristics

From the beginning the course was one of the three fastest in Europe; together with the first track versions from Spa-Francorchamps and Monza . Characteristic of the races in Reims-Gueux were extensive slipstream duels , followed by braking maneuvers before the hairpin bends. Engine performance and the driver's courage to die were challenged here. These duels often ended with serious accidents. On June 30, 1956, the day before the Formula 1 Grand Prix, the most famous racing driver in France at the time, Annie Bousquet (born in Austria as Annie Schaffer ) died at the 12-hour race in Reims after she 5-liter Porsche sports car had run off the track and was thrown out of the car. The accident curve was later named after her.

There were two fatalities on July 14, 1957: The Briton William Whitehouse died in a Formula 2 race at the wheel of his Cooper - Climax on the way to Thillois when his car overturned after a puncture and went up in flames. The US racing driver Herbert MacKay-Fraser had a fatal accident with his Formula 2 Lotus in a race for the Coupe de Vitesse Junior . In the Formula 1 race on July 6, 1958 , the Italian racing driver Luigi Musso died after a high-speed duel with his Ferrari team- mate and the eventual race winner Mike Hawthorn . On February 7, 1959, the well-known French Formula 2 champion and rally driver Claude Storez was fatally injured during a special stage of the Rallye des Routes du Nord on the Circuit de Reims-Gueux. On July 2, 1962, the American-Canadian racing driver Peter Ryan died in his Formula 2 Lotus in the Coupe de Vitesse Junior after colliding with a competitor while in the lead.

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  The original course between 1926 and 1952

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  The route of the 8.3 km long Circuit de Compétiton used from 1953

Motorcycle racing

In May 1954 and 1955 , the French Grand Prix for the motorcycle world championship took place in Reims-Gueux in various cubic capacity classes.

The first 12-hour race for motorcycles was in 1926; In 1932 and 1939 the Grand-Prix de l'UMF (at that time still without world championship status) was driven with international participation, 1970 to 1972 there were national races for various trophies.

The Italian Lorenzo Bandini drove the fastest training lap in Formula 1 in 1966

The records

At the 1954 Formula 1 Grand Prix , the eventual winner of the race, Juan Manuel Fangio , made a debut with the new streamlined Mercedes-Benz W196 during the training runs: For the first time in Formula 1, an average speed of just over one lap was achieved 200 km / h reached. The race organizer and president of the Champagne Automobile Club, Raymond “Toto” Roche, rewarded crossing this “sound barrier” with 50 bottles of the region’s typical drink, champagne . Fangio also won the world championship that season and, as in the 1930s, the Mercedes racing cars were given the nickname Silver Arrow . The first lap of the race with more than 200 km / h average speed (204.980 km / h) there was at the Grand Prix in 1956 ; again driven by Fangio, but this time on a Ferrari . At the last Formula 1 Grand Prix in Reims-Gueux in 1966 , Lorenzo Bandini achieved an average speed of over 230 km / h in practice (lap time 2: 07.8 min); at the last international race in 1969, François Cevert achieved a racing average of over 218 km / h in a Formula 2 Tecno - Ford .

The official lap record (only racing laps count here) is 2: 10.5 min (average 229.013 km / h); driven by Paul Hawkins at the "12 Hours of Reims" on June 25, 1967 in a Lola - Chevrolet . This made the circuit the fastest in Europe alongside the Italian Monza, even after more than four decades.

The end of the course

The high speeds in Reims-Gueux and the extensive safety equipment increasingly required by drivers would have required considerable modifications and investments. However, if the racetrack was not permanent, these would hardly have been refinanced. The operator Automobile Club de Champagne could not bear this risk alone and financial aid from the public sector could not be politically implemented. From 1970 the track was therefore no longer used for car races. On June 11, 1972, the last event was national motorcycle races, the 3rd Trophées Motocyclistes de Champagne . After that, the course was officially closed.

Modern racetracks such as the Circuit Paul Ricard , which opened in 1970, had more and more overtaken the old street circuits . These permanent tracks could be fully adapted to the needs of motorsport; There was no need to take into account the requirements of public road traffic and little attention had to be paid to the interests of nature and landscape protection. These new systems gradually replaced the street circuits, which, with narrow lanes and no run-off zones, became increasingly dangerous for the ever faster racing cars. In addition, the coefficients of friction of the asphalt used on public roads are generally lower than on pure motorsport racetracks, which are built with special compounds and mostly surfaces with very good grip. Other risk factors for non-permanent courses are liquid residues from road traffic (oil or cooling water traces) and road markings, which are very slippery, especially when wet .

Henri Pescarolo designed the route for a planned new edition of the Circuit de Reims-Gueux

Current development

The pit facility that still exists today.

Parts of the pit systems, grandstands and display boards can still be seen - in various stages of decay - from the public and therefore easy-to-follow course of the former racetrack. An association called Amis du Circuit de Gueux is currently trying to preserve or restore some of these historical witnesses; In July 2005 there was a partial “revival” of the track on the newly renovated RN 31 for an event with historic racing cars. End of 2005, plans were of Jacques Jacquet (the owner of the test track of Folembray in Soissons known), based on a design from 2008 Henri Pescarolo to build a new, permanent circuit on the fields behind the 1960 built grandstands and pit facilities. Some of the old systems could then be used again. A corresponding agreement between the municipality of Gueux and Jacquet has already been signed. Apparently these plans are about to fail because a landowner refuses to sell his land. In July 2006, a meeting of classic sports cars with a 12-hour "race" took place in the region, which, however, was only allowed to be driven at an average of 50 km / h. In September 2007, after some renovation and renovation work, the first WeekEnd de l'Excellence Automobile de Reims was held on the site of the old course , a meeting of historic racing vehicles with an exhibition and demonstration drives .

statistics

Winner of the Formula 1 World Championship races in Reims-Gueux

No.	year	driver	constructor	engine	tires	time	Route length	Round	Ø pace	date	GP de
1	1950	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo	P	2: 57: 52.800 h	7.815 km	64	168.707 km / h	02nd July	l'ACF
2	1951	Luigi Fagioli / Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo	P	3: 22: 11,000 h	7.816 km	77	178.600 km / h	0July 1
3	1953	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	Ferrari	P	2: 44: 18,600 h	8.347 km	60	182.881 km / h	05th July
4th	1954	Juan Manuel Fangio	Mercedes	Mercedes	C.	2: 42: 47.900 h	8.302 km	61	186.644 km / h	0July 4th
5	1956	Peter Collins	Ferrari	Ferrari	E.	2: 34: 23.400 h	8.302 km	61	196.809 km / h	0July 1
6th	1958	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	Ferrari	E.	2: 03: 21,300 h	8.302 km	50	201.905 km / h	0July 6th
7th	1959	Tony Brooks	Ferrari	Ferrari	D.	2: 01: 26,500 h	8.302 km	50	205.086 km / h	05th July
8th	1960	Jack Brabham	cooper	Climax	D.	1: 57: 24.900 h	8.302 km	50	212.119 km / h	03rd of July
9	1961	Giancarlo Baghetti	Ferrari	Ferrari	D.	2: 14: 17,500 h	8.302 km	52	192.880 km / h	02nd July
10	1963	Jim Clark	lotus	Climax	D.	2: 10: 54,300 h	8.302 km	53	201.676 km / h	June 30th
11	1966	Jack Brabham	Brabham	Repco	G	1: 48: 31,300 h	8.302 km	48	220.322 km / h	03rd of July

Record winner
Driver: Juan Manuel Fangio (3) • Driver nations: Great Britain (5) • Constructors: Ferrari (5) • Engine manufacturer: Ferrari (5) • Tire manufacturer: Dunlop (4)

References

literature

• Peter Higham, Bruce Jones (Translator: Walther Wuttke): Race tracks in the world . Heel-Verlag, Königswinter 2000, ISBN 3-89365-890-4
• SS Collins (text), Gavin D. Ireland (photos), Helmar Winkel (translation): Forgotten racetracks - traditional courses in Europe . Heel-Verlag, Königswinter 2006, ISBN 3-89880-644-8

Web links

Commons : Circuit de Reims-Gueux  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• History and pictures of the route
• Association of Friends of the Circuit de Gueux (French)
• Memories of Reims-Gueux (French)
• Plans for a new route (French)

References and comments

1. ↑ In many publications this race is mistakenly referred to as the first of Reims-Gueux although it took place on a completely different track.
2. ↑ statistics and plans of the Reims-Gueux (at racingmemo.free.fr, undated, accessed in September 2007, French)
3. ^ Winners list of the car races in Reims-Gueux between 1926 and 1969
4. ^ Temporary website of the new Circuit Reims-Gueux ( Memento of January 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Le circuit de Reims va en partie renaître - July 27, 2006
6. ↑ WeekEnd de l'Excellence Automobile de Reims . weea-organisation.com, September 2007 (French)

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on March 10, 2007 .