Legends of Le Mans at Castellet

Photo : - Daimler - Mercedes-Benz

Le Castellet, celebrated its 40th anniversary this weekend by hosting the first edition of 'Dix Mille Tours' (ten thousand laps), a historic race meeting which pays homage to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

By all accounts the first 'Dix Mille Tours' marked the birth of a great event. The grid gathered more than 220 vintage cars and leading figures of French motorsport such as Alain Prost, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Henri Pescarolo, Gerard Larrousse and Jean Guichet.

The 'Dix Mille Tours' Sixties Endurance brings together endurance sports cars of the 50s and 60's. The goal is to provide participants and spectators a wide panorama of the golden era of motorsport. This rich and varied grid, including AC Cobra, Jaguar E-Type, Porsche 904 / 6, Porsche 356, Abarth Simca, Lotus IX and XI.

The Trofeo Nastro Rosso was, as its name suggests, has a high dominance of red. Devoted entirely to the beautiful Italian Sports and GTs before 1966; Ferrari (275 GTB, 250 LM), Lancia Aurelia, Alfa Romeo TZ Bizzarrini 5300 GT, or even Maserati 200 S.

The Classic Endurance Racing Championship, the traditional support race of the Le Mans Series, brought together the cars that have made the history of endurance between 1966 and 1979, incuding McLaren M1B, Porsche 936, Ferrari 312 PB, and BMW M1. Bobby Rahal, winner of the Indianapolis 500 and co-owner of Rahal Letterman Motorsport (team entering the BMW M3 ALMS), was driving a Lola T212

Seen opening 24 Hours of Le Mans this year, British Racing Group C was eagerly awaited by the public, and for good reasons, the prototypes of the 80's joined the ranks of "classic", they are still capable of exceptional performance. Among the legendary models involved, the spectators could see the Sauber Mercedes C11 of Michael Schumacher and several Porsche 962 and Spice SE88C.

Nearly 10,000 people attended the first event, an encouraging result for the future. The next 'Dix Mille Tours' is already is already announced for 7, 8 and 9 October 2011

Julien Hergault – translated by Dave Davies