Classic Racing: Swiss Festival in Burgundy 🎥
SIEGESSERIE At the Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or in Dijon, the Swiss showed all their strength in the most important classes. The Jura's Maxime Guenat was outstanding.
The Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or for historic racing cars is one of the largest international events still held on the former GP circuit of Dijon in Burgundy. It is also the oldest event in Historic Racing in France, held for the 58th time from June 2-4.
The majority of the races were part of the Classic Endurance Racing Series organized by Peter Auto from Paris. Around 16,000 spectators and participants, among them many from Switzerland, attended the traditional event. The video gives a nice impression of the individual race fields and the trappings.
Fivefold Swiss victory
The Swiss Classic Racers took the cake in the CER2 for GT and sports cars from 1972/73 to 1981. In this one-hour race, there was a fivefold triumph for the Swiss. Yves Scemama in the Cosworth 3.0-powered Toj SC304, who started from second place, initially took the lead before pole setter Maxime Guenat in the Lola T286 with the same engine (top gallery, left, in front of Scemama) took the reins after 17 of the 37 laps with a mandatory pit stop. Third place overall went to Yves' brother Philippe Scemama in the 1981 Group C Lola T600.
Because the trio (podium upper gallery center) was alone in the largest displacement class, the fastest two-liters followed. After the disqualification of the initially leading Brit Tony Sinclair in a Lola T296, multiple champion Beat Eggimann prevailed in his Cheetah G601 (upper gallery right). The Sissach-based garage owner led a horde of Chevrons with the Swiss design, the best of which was his compatriot Philipp Brühweiler. In qualifying, Brühweiler was still ahead.
Toni Seiler's advance to the podium
In CER1 (1966-1971), Toni Seiler and his Lola T70 MkIII (middle gallery, left) only really got going in the race after a rather disappointing qualifying (12th). The reward was third place in class and fourth overall, which was led by his French brand mate Armand Mille.
Impressively, Henrique Gemperle and Marc de Siebenthal also moved their Porsche 908/03 in famous Martini Racing colors (lower gallery center) to third place overall. With a Ford GT40, Yves Scemama decided the GT1 group in his favor.
Best advertising in own cause
Worldwide unique in the context of this event series is in each case the field of Group 2 and Group A from the era of the European Touring Car Championship and DRM from 1966 to 1984 (start second gallery right). The legendary battles between Ford and BMW are continued here with fast and solvent private drivers at the wheel. Although some of the cars are not originals in racing trim at the time, but have been elaborately rebuilt on original bodyshells, they are nevertheless a feast for the eyes and ears.
The specialist in this field is Michael Kammermann from Berne with his company MK Motorsports in Worb, who immediately demonstrated what his beautiful one-offs are capable of. With the BMW 3.0 CSL from 1975 (third gallery on the left), which he used for the first time in 2023 and with which he already won at the Hockenheim Historic in May, he dueled with the four-valve coupé of Maxime Guenat, which he also built, and the two Ford Capri RS3100s of Armand Mille and Yves Scemama.
In the second half of the race Kammermann (third gallery center) definitely took the lead and won with 1.2 seconds ahead of Mille and 33.5 ahead of the father-son duo Guenat. After a technical defect on his Capri in free practice, the 30-year-old Jura native Maxime Guenat had switched to the BMW of his father Dominique, which Michael Erlich drove to many victories two or three years ago.
With a Ford Capri RS 2600 (third gallery on the right, in front of another MK coupe and an Escort RS) built over a period of three years on the basis of a "barn find chassis," Toni Seiler also participates in the Heritage Touring Cup in 2023. However, the Limmattaler with the Weslake engine has no chance against the four-valve engines in the fastest BMWs and Fords. In the Swiss duel against brand mate Thomas Studer, he lost by 0.001 second (12th and 13th place).
One lap too many
The previous evening, Guenat Jr., who has been one of the fastest in his field for years, had already climbed onto the podium with Frenchman Guillaume Mahé in a Shelby Cobra 289 (lower gallery, left) as the winner of the Sixties' Endurance over one and a half hours. The duo inherited that success, however, after the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé ahead of them was disqualified for a violation of the sporting regulations (waved off twice!). Less than 50 seconds behind, Armand Mille and Yves Scemama finished 5th in their Daytona Coupé.
Philipp Buhofer narrowly missed the podium with his Lotus 27 (lower gallery, center) in fourth place in the first race of the FIA Lurani Trophy for Formula Junior race cars (lower gallery, right). The driver from Zug retired in the second race.
All results of all events of these race series are available to this Link to be taken from the event. The season's highlight will take place on July 1-2 in the form of the 2023 Le Mans Classic on the original Circuit des 24 Heures, where the modern endurance classic will be staged this weekend.
Photos: Peter Auto/Photoclassicracing, Peter Wyss
